Something wicked this way comes

Waaka Vercoe did not resign as the chairman of Ngati Awa’s audit committee, he was pushed.

Mr Vercoe was replaced on the committee by new board member Brian Tunui. The committee is also comprised of board members Regina O’Brien (Gina) and Charlie Elliott, two representatives from accountant firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers and independent member Peter Taylor.

Speaking at the board meeting in April, Te Pahipoto representative Mr Elliott was adamant that Mr Vercoe was forced to stand down at the end of last year.

Mr Elliott said he and Mrs O’Brien had gone to see Mr Vercoe after hearing through the grape-vine that the long-serving governor had been removed from the committee.

“Gina and I spoke to Waaka about this issue and Waaka didn’t resign, he was made to,” he said.

Mrs O’Brien verified Mr Elliott’s account of the conversation with Mr Vercoe, however there was no further discussion this issue by the board.

The issue of Mr Vercoe’s absence was first raised by Te Runanga o Ngati Awa chief executive Enid Ratahi-Pryor at the meeting with Ngati Hokopu at Wairaka in March.

Mrs Ratahi-Pryor said Mr Vercoe stood down voluntarily because he was getting old and tired.

“He decided it is time for a change. It is time for new blood.”

After that meeting I decided to check out Mrs Ratahi-Pryor’s statements and I came away with the same story as Mr Elliott and Mrs O'Brien. 

I sat with him for four hours in the kitchen of his Wairaka home and I was entertained with a series of stories and anecdotes.

But also during that conversation he confirmed that he had been pushed out of his seat at the head of the audit committee by chairman of the tribe’s commercial arm, Ngati Awa Group Holdings Ltd (NAGHL).

Mr Vercoe said Wira Gardiner had forced him off the committee after he refused to allow Omataroa Trust, which he also chairs, to back a honey venture that Mr Gardiner was promoting.

He was obviously disappointed.

And yes, Mr Vercoe is getting old and perhaps his advanced years mean that his mind is not as sharp as it was but he still has experience and knowledge.

And he feels he still has something to give the tribe.

Coincidentally, however, Mr Vercoe was the person who signed off the controversial audit committee that highlighted Mr Gardiner’s role in the conflict of interest surrounding NAGHL board member Graham Pryor.

Mr Gardiner could not be reached for comment.

Obviously this is a he says/she says situation but I would like to know how people are selected for the sub-committees of the TRONA and NAGHL boards and who decides when the members should stand down.

The committees are important tools in the operations of Te Runanga o Ngati Awa and at the end of the day the organisation was created to manage our assets. Therefore I would like to know that the responsibility has been entrusted to the people who have the right skills and motivations to do the jobs.

Meanwhile, speaking of jobs I wanted to share some news. On the back of this blog I am currently in talks with the editor of the Whakatane Beacon, Mark Longley, about becoming a regular contributor to the newspaper.

My proposal was that I could be a weekly contributor who writes about local issues as a trained journalist and from a Maori point of view.

Mr Longley has been reading this blog and said he would be very interested in a regular column.

We spoke of broadening the focus of Tu Mai Te Toki.

And while Ngati Awa politics will at times be the subject of the column, neither of us want it be contained to such a narrow purpose. Nor do I want the column, and the blog, to always be negative.

He has gone away to crunch the numbers and asked to see a draft column so he could see how I write.

Therefore, I wanted to show Mr Longley, and you, that I could write about another issue.

This is what I submitted:

A group of Whakatane residents have fiercely opposed a scientific trial to clean up the poisoned Kopeopeo canal.

Submissions on the Regional Council's application for resource consent to remove and clean up sediment contaminated with dioxins from the canal closed this week. A decision will be announced after a hearing but given the level of interest in this situation I decided to write about the debate.

The Kopeopeo canal was identified as a contaminated area after surface run-off and storm-water containing Pentachlorophenol (PCP) from the NZ Forest Products Ltd sawmill was discharged into it between 1950 and 1989.

Used by the mill to treat timber, PCP has been found to contain dioxins that can cause diabetes, pancreatic cancer, leukemia, auto-immune diseases and other disorders.

The group of residents who are fiercely opposing the consent attended the consultation meetings held by the Whakatane District Council and many of its members were strongly vocal at the final meeting held at Wairaka Marae this week.

They believe the dioxins could be spread if the resource consent is granted and they want to leave the clean-up until further research has been done.

Listening to their points it seems there is an element of "not in my back-yard" and I reckon they have missed the point.

The canal is not the only contaminated site in the area. 

There are at least 36 sites in Whakatane, more across the country, and the Regional Council is using the project to trial the process with the hope that it could be used to clean up the other spots.

It is something my Dad believes in.

He was five-years-old when he used to swim in the Kopeopeo Canal every day. By the time he turned six, his family had moved to Muriwai Drive and the house across road from the mudflats that were beginning to be filled with waste from the mill.

Then when he was 18-years old, he started working at the mill.

My Dad knows about PCP and has the scars to prove it.

Buckled by the debilitating disease that has turned his body against itself, my Dad has lived with it for almost every day of his life. It is a legacy he has passed on to me and perhaps to my son.

As a result he is passionate about finding a way to clean it up and that is why he joined the watchdog group, Sawmill Workers Against Poisons (SWAP).

Now he is the chairman and a facilitator for the group. He has read the research, talked with the people and heard the arguments.

It is not going to be easy but he says he has faith in the science.

Under the trial, the Regional Council is working with the community on the project to clean up the canal to remove, store and clean up the contaminated sediment using bioremediation. The method looks to break down contaminants using trees and mushrooms.

And it has its results.

The next stage of the trial requires a section of the canal to be drained, the sediment removed and trucked to three separate pits that will be lined with Geonet mat to stop the contaminants leeching out. The pits are then inoculated and planted with mushrooms and trees

It is hoped that the levels of dioxin in the soil will be reach acceptable levels within 15 years.

The process was designed by scientists from Massy and Waikato Universities and the operations have been planned by experts who have been careful and meticulous.

Risks are minimal, my Dad says to me, and the results could be immense.

The time for sitting on our hands is over.

Better late than never

Ok first up sorry this post is a bit late but I have been trying to hold out for information.

As indicated in my last post I wanted to talk about the fees paid to the consultants that were engaged to explore the option of building a “gondola” that would take people from behind the Mataatua wharenui up the escarpment to the pa site, Kapu-te-rangi.

The idea was part of research into the commercial development opportunities around the wharenui. In other words, we needed to find some way to make the Mataatua wharenui pay for itself.

First opened in 1875 the Mataatua wharenui was built as a testament to Ngati Awa’s enduring creative spirit following the land wars, confiscation and sickness that had decimated our tribe.

Recognised as a beautiful example of Maori artwork the wharenui was taken overseas in 1879 when the Government needed a carved meeting house for the British Empire Exhibition.

It was shipped back to New Zealand in 1925 but rather than returning to Whakatane it became a permanent exhibit at the Otago Museum.

Finally returned to Ngati Awa in 1996 after years of negotiations, the wharenui was restored over the next 15-years. However along the way it was acknowledged that it was going to need money to maintain the house long-term.

So it was identified that because of its assets the best way to do this was to create a tourism product around the whare.

Consultants were engaged to find the best way of achieving this and they produced a comprehensive report.

According to that report four options were identified: create a complex with the wharenui as the only attraction, add a people-mover to take visitors from the wharenui to the top of the escarpment, build a restaurant and swing bridge so that once visitors were at the top they could eat a meal and access Kohi Point easily or go the whole hog and in addition to everything else they could build an underground experience that would incorporate a light show.

In the end the executive board decided against the people-mover, restaurant, swing-bridge and underground experience. Rather, they decided to build a marae complex and invest close to $1 million into developing a world-class light show that told the stories of our tribe.

Ok, with that explained we can get down to business.

When I first decided to write about this subject for the Tu Mai Te Toki blog, I wanted to be able to confirm the amount that was paid to consultants engaged to explore the option of installing the “gondola”.

The figure was mentioned in a report given at last year’s AGM by the runanga’s accountant Murray Haines.  

Last week I went into the runanga’s offices to get a copy of the minutes from the AGM but I was told that they still hadn’t been typed up.

So I sent an email to Mr Haines asking if he could confirm the amount but he replied that I would have to wait until my hapu hui.

“Our CEO Enid Ratahi-Pryor and I will be attending your hapu hui and will be happy to answer questions there through the hapu representative,” he said in the email.

Now here are my concerns around this situation.

When Mr Haines raised the point about the consultants’ fees he claimed it was to investigate the option of a gondola.

The report clearly states that the option was not a gondola but a people-mover that would take visitors through the undergrowth like a cable car.

While this may seem to be nit-picking it clearly shows that there are some within the runanga who do not have a clear understanding of the report.

Secondly, while I cannot remember the exact amount paid to the consultants and Mr Haines would not confirm it I do recall it was close to $200,000. And although I am glad that this investigation was undertaken so that it could be identified that it was not the right option to take before we spent any more money on it, I am concerned that there was no consultation with the Ngati Hokopu and Wharepaia.

Most would accept that the area around the wharenui, known as Wairaka, would be under the mana whenua of those two hapu and to consider investing in something that would drastically change the landscape like a people-mover without consulting the people of that land is beyond rude.

Finally I would suggest that the fact that it has been two months since the AGM and the minutes are still not available highlights the need for better efficiency within the runanga.

Next time I will explore the subject of the Mataatua wharenui a little further.

Ma te wa.