Meeting calls for resignation of Te Wananga o Aotearoa Chair

Press Release 1st October 2012

Meeting calls for the resignation of the Te Wananga o Aotearoa Chair

Tribal, and community leaders have come out condemning the Wananga Council Chairs rejection of the Maori King’s nominee for Council representation.

Today at a meeting held at the headquarters of Ngati Maniapoto trustboard, Maniapoto representatives, members of the Aotearoa Institute and the Office of the Maori King, agreed to call for the resignation of the Wananga chair Richard Batley saying that due to his mishandling the Council have failed to observe compliance with its own constitution.

Representatives at the meeting stated “ We don’t believe the members of Council who voted against accepting the Kings nomination have a true bias against the King’s candidate, we believe they have been purposefully mis- informed about their legal obligation to comply with the constitution. We have seen the legal advice provided by Paul East QC to say that the Council has no grounds to reject a nomination from Kiingi Tuheitia. The chair has demonstrated his mishandling of this matter, bringing risk to the Wananga’s reputation. We are making a public statement calling for his resignation. “ they said.

Kiingitanga sources stated that the purpose of todays meeting was to inform Iwi and Community stakeholders about the Wananga Councils rejection of the Kings seat.

“ The Kiingitanga holds seats at the Wintec and the University of Waikato Councils and are represented by a mix of Waikato Tainui tribal representatives and the Kings own appointments. It also has a constitutional right to have a representative at the Wananga table. For over 12 months now the Chair has been misleading the Kings representatives about a purported Council downsize resulting in exclusion from vital decisionmaking, especially the most recent decision not to renew the CEO, Benthams Ohia’s contract”.

Kiingi Tuheitia’s nominee is Adjunct Professor Susan Cullen, daughter of former Chief Executive Rongo Wetere. “ The Council were led to believe that they held discretionary powers to change the Kings nomination, essentially voiding their own constitution. We have a Council whom are not fully informed about their constitutional obligations. We will be urgently seeking agreement from Council to put things right. ” she said.

Susan Cullen has been a Council member for Northland Polytechnic since 2010.

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