Appointment controversial 

His was a Prime Ministerial appointment. It was one fraught with controversy that led to inquiries by a Queen’s Counsel, the Independent Police Complaints Authority and the Public Services Commission. They followed bullying allegations laid by three women seconded to the police from other government departments.

They had taken part in a joint project directed by the Ministers of Police and Justice. It aimed at reducing Maori being over-represented in the criminal justice system.

That was in 2016 but it wasn’t until the then Superintendent Haumaha was named deputy commissioner two years later that the women’s claims made it into mainstream media and the storm surrounding his appointment erupted.

Despite the three inquiries Wally Haumaha (NZOM, QSM, Commander of the Order of St Lazarus) kept his job, holding it for five years.

Wally’s kept stum about his torrid time in the headlines until now. He broke his silence in a wide-ranging chat with In Profile in his tupuna wharenui, Ngararanui, at Waiteti. It’s a place he holds dear. Wally’s chaired its committee for four decades, preceded by time as its secretary.

“When I come back to this marae, this house I feel the wairua. It’s like filling the tank up again. I’ve never been disconnected from this place.”

Hunted, vilified

Wally believes the finger pointing was motivated by him getting too close to the top job – police commissioner. It’s a position yet to be held by a Maori.

 “People did what they did. I was someone public servants hadn’t seen before.

“I was chased, hunted, vilified on social media. The really sad part that got to  me was  watching my children and grandchildren affected by reading that stuff.  

“I could see the damage it was doing to them. I have nothing but the greatest admiration and love for my greatest champion, my wife Kim. Her courage and undying support kept me focused.”

He’s unequivocal that despite the unpleasantness and cruelty his policing years had exposed him to what he was subjected to on a daily basis was the worst time of his life.

“I was accused of being a bully but those who knew me personally and professionally knew I was being bullied out of a job.   

“The support for me and my family was amazing. I was being offered jobs outside the police. Leaders and communities throughout the country stood by us.

“The years I had spent earning their trust and respect paid dividends in spades as they came to my family’s assistance.”

Called home

He is proud his iwi called him home “to the safety of our tupuna whare”.

“We arrived to be greeted by about 300 people packed to the rafters inside and outside too. They came to comfort our family, to share the aroha the people had for me.” 

Among his cheer leaders was prominent Ngapuhi activist the late Titewhai  Harawera and a supporter representing the gangs. 

“Titewhai’s presence brought absolute silence, you could hear a pin drop. She banged her tokotoko on the floor and said ‘Those people don’t know what this man has done for us as a nation. Even you, his own people, don’t realise how much he’s done for us’.

“Titewhai and I worked together for 20-plus years, first during the state visit of President Bill Clinton in 1999 then in 2004 when she was leading the controversial seabed and foreshore hikoi.

“We spent many years together changing the face of Waitangi to become a place to celebrate nationhood.”

Truth prevailed

The inquiries dragged on. Wally gives thanks that finally for him the truth prevailed.

“In the end I was satisfied I have nothing to answer for, nothing to fear. The head of the Commission of Inquiry, Mary Scholten, QC (now KC) was resolute in her findings.

“She said to my children ‘I now know why your dad was appointed deputy commissioner’.

“Sir Hugh Rennie QC (now KC) who defended me affirmed my faith in justice. He will forever be my lifetime friend.”   

Once he was exonerated the then Governor General Dame Patsy Rennie invited the Haumaha family to afternoon tea. Leaders of the cultural communities he worked with were also guests.

“Many speeches of support echoed in the chambers of Government House. They had believed in me.

“What does that do for one’s soul? You can always forgive but never forget.”

With that time behind him and his police uniform packed away, Wally Haumaha has not retired from active duty.

 Global investigations company OSACO has recruited him as director of leadership and innovation, specialising in oversight and compliance, governance, anti-corruption, bribery, human trafficking and sexual exploitation.     

On the home front he continues to work for his marae and iwi.

Ngongotaha beginnings

So where did all this begin for the Ngongotaha kid who, whatever status he achieved, insists on being called Wally?

“Only my mother and my parish priest call me Wallace.” He thinks it makes him sound pompous if others do.

Pompous is something Wally isn’t. He proudly describes his parents as “humble”.

“Dad was a quarryman blasting up the sides of that maunga [Ngongotaha]. Mum was the most loving mother anyone could wish for. She was a cook on the marae with the best recipe ever for steamed pudding.”    

 A committed Catholic, Wally’s schooling moved from Ngongotaha Primary to Edmund Rice (now incorporated into John Paul College) then Auckland’s Hato Petera. He boarded there supported by Te Arawa Trust Board and Crown Lynn Potteries scholarships.

During school holidays he worked on the potteries’ factory floor. Company chairman and international yachtsman the late Sir Tom Clark had the young Wally in his sights as a trainee executive. He wanted to put him through

Auckland University but Mrs Haumaha had other ideas. She wanted her boarding school boy home.

“Sir Tom bought all my clothes. I was very lucky,” Wally reflects.

Maori Affairs, rugby

He joined Maori Affairs as an intern. He loved the atmosphere but the bookwork bored him.

Moving to the court he was clerk to Rotorua’s then solo magistrate the late Tom Birks. It gave him his first taste of law and justice. He transferred to Hamilton but hankered for fresh air. He got it as a glazier on Hamilton’s first high-rise building.

But as he matured Wally accepted he needed a more secure future. He applied to join the police and train as a teacher. Both accepted him. Teachers College won out.

His first posting brought him home to Kaitao Intermediate “working with some of the more difficult kids”.  

“My first boss was ex Silver Fern Mirth Solomon. She was a great teacher, hard but fair, very disciplined.”

Passionate about rugby he describes himself as an average player. Nevertheless he played for Waikato University U21s, Waikite U21s and was in the champion Ngongotaha Senior A team of 1975.

“We won the banner, cleaned out every trophy in Rotorua. It was a great time to be part of a great team.”

He also played for the successful Bay of Plenty police team from 1984-86.

Kapa haka 

He was equally captivated by kapa haka. His involvement began at Hato Petera as a lead soloist and on his marae. 

“We performed for tourists in the 70s doing two shows a night, one on the marae, one at Tudor Towers.”

Master tutor and kapa haka composer Tommy Taurima invited him to join the Maori Ambassadors. He quit teaching and performed throughout South East Asia and Australia.

“Kapa haka was the love of my life at that time. I was very fortunate to be able to travel and perform overseas.”

He joined the resident group at the Gold Coast’s biggest theatre restaurant at the Broadbeach Hotel.  

He’s shared the stage with a host of big names but it was his personal interaction with a Scottish rocker making his Aussie debut that’s embedded in Wally’s memory. That rocker was Jimmy Barnes, later Cold Chisel’s lead vocalist.

“We met in Cairns and came together after shows, shared stories and a vodka or two. He was always fascinated by that quivering Maori vibrato. What an artist, what a privilege.”

Springbok tour ignited police career

Wally was in Cairns in 1981 when he turned on the telly and saw the riot that forced the Springboks-Waikato game to be abandoned.

“I couldn’t believe this was in my country. I had played on that [Hamilton] park. I felt a real sense of despair. I decided that was my calling card. I had to come home and do something. I wasn’t quite sure what but I knew I had a calling.”   

He returned and applied to join the police.

“I remember going into the Rotorua police station to meet the then district commander Stormy Knight. I was unkempt, had long hair, a scruffy beard. Stormy said ‘Why do you want to join the police? What can you do? You’ve led a pretty theatrical life’. 

“My response was ‘You need people like me, watch me’. I’ve never looked back.”

He admits he never made a secret of being ambitious.

 “An old Scottish senior sergeant said in 1987 ‘If any Maori is going to make it to the top Wally will’. He wasn’t wrong.” 

But his application to join the CIB failed.

“I remember a detective sergeant saying ‘We already have two Maori, one more would be one too many’.”

Hydroponic gardening, grocer

He traded his baton for hydroponic gardening. His father-in-law had ventured into hydroponics at Paradise Valley.

“In 1987 I’d married his wonderful daughter Kim O’Callaghan.”

Her dad expanded, buying a block of Ngongotaha shops. He anointed Wally manager of the IGA grocery.

“It was where I’d worked for Andy Burnett as a kid. I grew up in that shop.”

Like Andy he became president of the Ngongotaha Business Association, the first Maori president.

“When the Ngongotaha community police station opened the then district commander Trevor Beatson said ‘It’s time you came back to the police. We’ve lost touch with the Maori community.’

" I removed the pencil from behind my ear, took off my apron on a Sunday night and was back on patrol Monday morning.”

 Iwi strategies, national HQ     

Ironically he was soon attached to the CIB investigating serious crime before moving to the Bay of Plenty regional headquarters. There he was tasked with developing strategies for iwi across its boundaries.

He sees the millennium year signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the police and iwi as a watershed moment for both parties.

“The very first MOU between Maori and the police in the history of policing.”

Wally received a Commissioner’s Commendation for that work. It’s one of the swag of accolades and awards he’s accrued. There are too many to fit on one table.

Soon after the MOU signing at Whakarewarewa he was transferred to Police National Headquarters leading Iwi, Pacific and Ethnic Services.

As he climbed the ranks community policing, youth services, mental health, alcohol, family harm, diversity and inclusion were added to his portfolio.

Seabed and Foreshore hikoi 

In 2004 he headed the police presence during the Seabed and Foreshore hikoi from Northland to Wellington.

“The commissioner sent me up north to manage the hikoi. No one had any idea of the momentum that gathered as 40,000 marched on parliament.

“Titiwhai Harawera and her son Hone didn’t warm to my team of four until we walked over the Auckland Harbour Bridge. I’ll never forget that day walking backwards, facing the people. The bridge was swinging madly in a howling gale. 

 “From then on the tide began to turn. The defining moment came when Hone Harawera called on us [police] to close the hikoi with a karakia. There’d been  no arrests. That was community policing at its best.

“For me it was the point of difference I was looking for when I saw the anti-tour protestors storming the field in 1981.”     

Cultural clashes, mosque attacks

By Wally’s reckoning he’s been involved in every major crisis and cultural clash from 2000 on.

 In 2007 he led what turned into protracted negotiations when the body of James Takamore was spirited from Christchurch to Kutarere.

In the same year he became peacemaker in the aftermath of the police raid on Tuhoe.

“I had the unenviable job of rebuilding relationships between police and Tuhoe. It took seven years for an apology to be delivered.”

The biggest and most shocking cultural catastrophe he was front and centre of  was the 2019 Christchurch Mosque shootings.

“My job was to work alongside the victims’ families and wider Muslim community.

“I’ll never forget facing that crowd on the evening of the massacre. The crying screaming, wailing. People were ready to rip the walls off the hospital as they demanded that names to be released. 

"My role was to try and bring calm. Find the words to make them believe we were providing as much support as we could. It was hard, I had to dig deep, think on my feet in this unprecedented experience.”

Whaakari White Island and beyond

Nine months after the Mosque attacks he was back liaising with victims’ families and iwi following Whakaari White Island’s eruption.

“Again I had to dig deep. One of those moments was commandeering a tour boat to take about 30 people to the island at 4am. As we drew close a Ngati Awa kaumatua delivered karakia tawhito [ancient prayers]. There wasn’t a dry eye on that boat.”

He was also to the forefront of negotiating with iwi when checkpoints sprang up during pandemic-enforced lockdowns. Then there was the occupation of Parliament grounds. “An untold story.”

Wally’s spoken at international conferences and advised Western Australia’s police on setting up its first police cultural unit “in the largest police jurisdiction in the world”.

“I’ve spent the last 28 years of my life developing and implementing meaningful change, taking calculated risks for police to deliver everyone’s right to justice.

“I am very proud of what I have achieved as deputy commissioner.”

And his perception of himself?

“Always as a servant of the people bringing our best game every day. 

“It’s been a privilege and honour to serve this country as an officer in the New Zealand police.”