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New boss to get Waitangi in fighting shape
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones wants the Waitangi National Trust to play a leading role in the development of tourism in the north – but it needs to clean house first.
The Government is backing the trust's plans to build a museum beside the Treaty Grounds as a memorial to the 28 Māori Battalion, which gathered there in 1940 before embarking for North Africa.
Mr Jones says Serious Fraud Office charges against its former corporate services manager, Wallace Tamamotu Te Ahuru, should be a wake up call for the trust.
The Government will expect robust processes before it hands over public money.
"They have some sort of commercial affairs committee and apparently it was set up in 2016. If the purpose of that committee was to be robust in a commercial sense, given that one of the key figures of the trust's working community is facing financial charges, the sooner we get rid of that damn committee the better," Mr Jones says.
He's backing new chair Pita Tipene to do what's needed.
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