A thought about the Tamihere scandal.

For the past three days in the House, Michael Cullen has been trotting out the following argument:

Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN: The one thing that is clear—and nobody has tried to argue this—is that Mr Tamihere received no payment to get rid of him from a job that he was not wanted in.

Let me get this straight.

If the payment wasn't intended to get rid of him, why then did John Tamihere publicly refuse the payment back in 1999?