Maori TV 20 Jul 08
This has been on the back burner!- I finally got around to transcribing it.
On the “Native Affairs” programme Maori TV 20 July there was a piece about the tribal electoral reform. The film was prompted by an article on this website. There was not enough time to go into the many complex issues, but the film did record the general dissatisfaction about Tront on the electoral issue. Ok, fair enough, balance is important.
But what appalled, but did not surprise me, was Tahu Potiki’s contribution. Potiki was CEO when the electoral reform issue first came to the fore. He was the person who proposed, through Andrew Harrison the Tront secretary (now COO of NTHC), suspending the election of Tront representatives. I saw this as quite improper because the Ngai Tahu Act says there must be elections every three years, and there is no provision in the Act to suspend elections for any reason. More importantly, the role of the CEO is to provide Tront committees with impartial advice and resources.
However, here is what Potiki had to say about Tront on electoral reform:
“They do not have a sound policy in place”
Fine, but is it not the role of the CEO of Tront to provide policy options for Tront?
-“and the table( Tront) is full of people, really if you pull and prodded enough you will find they do not have a mandate to sit there”
Agreed, it is ten years from the settlement and Potiki allowed this flawed process to continue. Further, his remark is deeply insulting to all Runanga/Marae who struggle to comes to terms with their representative responsibilities
The Committee (ERC) and Tront dived into a mire of detail, lawyers at dawn, all with differing opinions confusing everybody—absolute bloody smoke screen. It could have been resolved if they had adopted four or five basic principles.
Potiki did not elaborate on these principles, for which he had every opportunity to do and should have, even when he was CEO.
It is interesting how Tahu Potiki is prepared to denigrate Tront, his former employer with venom. Tront, after all, are made up of part time people who rely on permanent, executive staff for advice and guidance. Tront received excellent advice and guidance when Sid Aston was CEO; the current CEO, Anake Goodall, is following in this tradition.
Potiki, can be charming when he wishes, and articulate. But he has a malign side to his character, a hangover, perhaps, from his bovver boy days; the symptoms of which, it appears, he has never bothered to shake off, even if he wished he could.