5 October 2004
Legal action possible in Northland election
Trouble is brewing in Northland local politics as Far North District Council candidate David Rankin faced a volley of
hostility from council employee, Rick McCall, over the plans for Kaikohe’s Hone Heke marae.
Mr Rankin had been in negotiations with the council for a year to determine the location of the planned marae. Members
of the Council and Community Board held a teleconference with him in August to finalise options for the site. Mr. Rankin
was posted a map and letter which had two locations highlighted as the ones the Council favoured.
Mr. Rankin kept minutes of the meeting, and has announced that he will release these if the matter is not speedily
resolved.: ‘I am very saddened by this turn of events’, he says. ‘I have received tremendous support from the business
community, tourism bodies, and Maori and Pakeha alike. Moreover, the Council’s representatives not only agreed to two
locations, they even marked these out on a map for me’.
‘What is even more staggering’, says Mr. Rankin, ‘is that the person who has made these allegations was not even present
at the meeting where the agreement was made. Mr. Rankin suspects the current elections may be behind these events.
Mr. Rankin has also raised the issue of Council staff deliberately interfering in local body elections. ‘There is no
doubt’, he says, that what has happened here in Kaikohe – with a Council employee openly criticising and potentially
libeling a candidate for Council – is highly inappropriate, and may breach the relevant legislation covering these
elections’.
‘I have been forced to seek legal advice on the propriety of the comments made against me,’ he says ‘and will obtain an
opinion as to whether the relevant legislation governing Council elections has been breached. If it turns out that the
law has been transgressed, I will pursue the Council to ensure that the appropriate action is taken to rectify the
situation.
ENDS