Merepeka Raukawa-Tait
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Merepeka Raukawa-Tait (aka Mary Gayle Sims) is a former chief executive of the Women's Refuge organisation of New Zealand. She also stood as a candidate for Parliament, serving briefly as deputy leader of the small Christian Heritage Party.
Raukawa-Tait (née Raukawa) was born in Fielding. She has worked in a number of jobs, both in New Zealand and in Zurich, Switzerland, but her most well-known role was as chief executive of Women's Refuge, an organisation which supports women who suffer domestic violence. Raukawa-Tait was generally considered to be an effective manager, and had a high public profile. In 2002, the magazine North & South named her "New Zealander of the Year". Differences with the board of Wome's Refuge over auditing of accounts led to Raukawa-Tait's contract not being renewed and she left the organisation.
She was charged and convicted of tax-related offences and avoided imprisonment by repaying IRD the money owed as well as a substantial fine.
In 2001, she made a high-profile bid for the mayoralty of Wellington; however, after a performance at a candidates' meeting that was criticised as bizarre and a perceived failure to articulate a vision for the city, her support tapered off and she eventually placed sixth.
Shortly before the 2002 elections, it was announced that Raukawa-Tait would be standing as a candidate for the Christian Heritage Party. This surprised many commentators, as Raukawa-Tait's previous comments did not indicate a great affinity with Christian Heritage policies — in particular, she was considered to be markedly more tolerant of homosexuality than the party. Even more surprisingly, Raukawa-Tait was immediately elected deputy leader of the party, despite having no prior political experience.
In the election itself, Raukawa-Tait contested the Wairarapa electorate against Labour's Georgina Beyer. Raukawa-Tait eventually placed third, winning 19% of the vote. This was the best result achieved by any Christian Heritage candidate in that election. Not long after the election, however, Raukawa-Tait and the leader of the Christian Heritage Party, Graham Capill, entered into a dispute about the election campaign. Raukawa-Tait and one of her advisors alleged that Capill's management of the party's campaign was poor, with little strategy and poor advertising. It was also alleged that the party was being financially mismanaged. After a protracted dispute, Raukawa-Tait and the entire Wairarapa Electorate Committee resigned from the party, citing "the lack of financial accountability" and "un-Christian threats and intimidation". in 2003 she reconciled with Capill, and they gave joint interviews in national newspapers saying that their falling out had all been the fault of Adam Owens, Capill's bete-noire, and they jointly condemned him. She was subsequently embarressed when Adam Owens was revealed as being instrumental in exposing Capill's activities as a paedophile, and claimed that he had told her of Capill's crimes some time shortly after the 2002 elections. Raukawa-Tait denied that she had been told of Capill's crimes in a radio interview in 2003, but when confronted with details she ended the interview by hanging up and turning her mobile off.
Raukawa-Tait later made a second attempt to enter local politics in a controversial and unsuccessful by-election campaign for the Masterton District Council where whe finished last and left town shortly afterwards with a bitter spray in local media against the "ignorance" of the electors, and with creditors still pursuing her. She was particularly bitter that the Wairarapa Times-Age had investigated her credentials and reported that her MBA was bought over the internet from the "Asia Pacific International University", which was found to have no academic acceditations and could not offer legitimate degrees.
Later that year she was again investigated by the Internal Revenue Department for falsely claiming GST and not passing it on to the IRD. She avoided being charged again by submitting to a comprehensive audit and repaying most of the money to the IRD.
She now works as a consultant and has been a panelist on the television advice show How's Life. She lives in Auckland in a camper van.
