Tainui manager's sacking upheld

A senior Tainui manager sacked for allegedly leaking stories to the media has failed in a court bid to claim he was unjustifiably dismissed.

Hemi Rau was sacked from heading the tribe's administrative arm after an internal investigation by tribal heavyweight Tuku Morgan.

Mr Morgan, who leads the iwi's executive board Te Arataura, found Mr Rau had leaked information to a Waikato Times reporter who then wrote stories about staff who worked in the personal office of King Tuheitia.

Mr Rau challenged his sacking but the Employment Relations Authority yesterday rejected the personal grievance claim for unjustified dismissal.

Authority member Leon Robinson found that Te Kauhanganui, the tribal parliament, represented by John Haigh, QC, conducted a full and fair investigation and had "compelling" evidence to support the leak claim.

His actions were deemed to have amounted to serious misconduct and Te Kauhanganui were justified in dismissing him, the ERA found.

Controversial evidence at the hearing included an affidavit from former Maori Television journalist Potaka Maipi on an alleged conversation he had with the Waikato Times Maori Affairs reporter, Karla Akuhata.

Mr Maipi said Ms Akuhata confided in him that Mr Rau was the source of the leak and that Mr Rau had asked her to pass the story on to a "Pakeha reporter" so it could not be traced back to him.

Both Ms Akuhata and Mr Rau later denied this to the ERA, but Mr Robinson considered the evidence to be significant and was corroborated by statements from other witnesses.

Waikato Times acting editor Roy Pilott said he had not seen the decision and would not comment on it.

But in terms of the media ethics involved he said the newspaper stood by Ms Akuhata's work at the time the allegations were first aired "and we will stand by it now".

The Herald made several calls to Mr Rau yesterday but these were unreturned. Herald sources said Mr Rau had spent thousands on lawyers and had mortgaged his home to defend himself.

They said Tainui would very likely pursue him for costs.

Mr Morgan said last night that the decision to dismiss Mr Rau was not taken lightly. "I hope this issue serves as a reminder to us all that we have a great responsibility if we work on behalf of the tribe."

Mr Morgan said Te Arataura would go to the market to seek a new chief executive as soon as was practicable.