Strip former Minister of his baubles of office: New Zealand Maori Council

The New Zealand Maori Council has called for the now convicted former Childrens Commissioner and National Minister and Member of Parliament to be stripped of all remaining Parliamentary perks as well as his Queens Service Medal. Mclay was convicted of fraud. The three charges he was convicted of were representative of 56 charges laid against him. The court was told that the total number of fraudulent claims he made was 75. The total amount paid to McClay by Parliamentary Services, World Vision and Keep NZ Beautiful was $24,687.10. Matthew Tukaki, Executive Director of the New Zealand Maori Council, has called offending a terrible indictment of a “man who was held up as the epitome of service.”

“The sad thing is that these charities and taxpayers have been defrauded. This man held some of the most senior and important positions within government, the civil service and charities – and to get off with a slap of the wrist and no period of incarceration is sad.” Tukaki said.

“In summing up the judge said "I am told World Vision could have allocated that money to the construction of three rainwater harvesting tanks of 46,000 litres each at schools and development programmes to keep hundreds of children safe and healthy.” Well I ask him to reflect seriously and challenge him never to re-enter the public domain again. And National Leader Simon Bridges should certainly condemn him for his actions” Tukaki said

“As for the sentence – I’d like to see him out on the waterways and cleaning them up – that’s 300 hours of mucking in and cleaning up – a fitting service considering one of the organized he defrauded was Keeping NZ Beautiful. He should have been sentenced to prison and made to pick up rubbish every day for a good year.” Tukaki said

Mclay was a teacher by profession, he was an MP from 1981 to 1996, representing the National Party. He was first elected to Parliament in the 1981 election as MP for Taupo.