Court of Public Opinion Aotearoa New Zealand

Following the stress of the hearing on the 3rd April 2017 at which Dun successfully forced the recusal of Ken Shirley over the racist rant he wrote in the Herald the Chairperson, Rodger Haines QC, drafted in a Ms Wendy Gilchrist for the second day of the hearing. It was entirely inappropriate for Ms Gilchrist to take up her position at such late notice and with such a lack of prior knowledge of the matters under consideration, and validated the earlier applications for Mr Shirley's recusal, which had been previously refused by Mr Haines. Mr Mihaka, and his Maori Agent, both awoke on the 4th feeling generally unwell, with a range of influenza-like symptoms.  Mr Mihaka contacted his doctor to arrange an appointment as soon as he could, and notified the Tribunal as soon as he could.' Following the visit with his doctor, Mr Mihaka forwarded the required medical certificate to the Tribunal in support of the validity of the reason for his absence on the 4th. Despite providing valid ...

In response to the brief of evidence filed by Te Ringa Mangu Mihaka the hearing has been adjourned for the second time, and the following Minutes issued by the Tribunal.

1.    I did not assault Warren Dickie.  Warren Dickie started touching me while I was asleep, I got up and left.  Housing NZ Corp have discriminated against me by prefering the word of Mr Dickie without testing the evidence fairly. 2.    Housing NZ Corporation did not give me a fair opportunity to respond to the false allegation against me. 3.    Housing NZ Corporation did not even record the allegation against me, despite this being a clearly stated requirement of their policies. 4.    This statement is true and correct: 5.    The second brief of evidence of Katherine Furfie at para 4 refers to "the statement from Mr Dickie that I referred to at paragraph 30(a) of my 22 July 2016 brief of evidence." 6.    Para 5 states that the evidence consisted of the summary of facts from Police and a statement from Mr Dickie. 7.    The Police summary of facts does not come up to scrut...

Ken Shirley wrote a rather racist rant published in the NZ Herald - who were only too happy to publish it of course. In a snide aside to ' Washday at the pa ', Ken attempts to cast an allegory with the introduction : "Graduation day at Te Wananga.  Soon after the Labour Government came to office it started showering money on all things Maori." What follows can only be described as the racist rant of a person with little insight into the history of this country, the relevance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, among other things. So who is Ken Shirley? Party positions held: Labour Party MP 1984- 1990 Ranked third on ACT Party List for 1996 elections ACT Party MP 1996- 2006 Government appointments: Appointed to Human Rights Review Tribunal by Justice Minister Simon Power, in December 2009 . Statements on Maori: “ Graduation day at Te Wananga. Soon after the Labour Government came to office it started showering money on all things Maori . ” – NZ Herald “ Soon after the Labour Go...