Posted by Blogger Name. Category:
Conflict of interest
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David Cunliffe
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Dr Brian Edwards
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Labour Party
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Moira Coatsworth
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Quote of the Day
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Shane Taurima
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TVNZ
It's a rare day when we agree with Brian Edwards. But the good Dr Edwards has chucked his tuppence-worth into the mix with regard to Shane Taurima and TVNZ; check this out:
There was nothing terribly complex about Shane Taurima’s situation with regard to his job as Head of TVNZ’s Maori and Pacifica Department once he had, albeit unsuccessfully, sought the Labour Party nomination for the Rawhiti Ikaroa seat following the death of Parekura Horomia. Taurima had very publicly nailed his political colours to the mast. In doing so he had effectively disbarred himself from any further involvement in News or Current Affairs broadcasting with the state broadcaster. The potential conflict of interest could not have been more clear.
Television New Zealand apparently did not see it that way. Perhaps they thought that Taurima’s failure to actually win the nomination made all the difference. He had been a would-be Labour candidate, not an actual Labour candidate. (And, as it turned out, would be again.) That rationalisation is so facile as to be laughable. Taurima was politically tainted. He should not have been re-employed in his previous role. But he was.
When he took things even further and turned his TVNZ office into a Maori/Pacifica Labour Party branch, Taurima did his employer a favour. Without actually hanging portraits of Savage, Fraser and Kirk on the walls, the conflict of interest in which he and others in his department now found themselves could not have been more patent. To his credit, Taurima had the grace and good sense to resign.
Brian Edwards is quite right. Shane Taurima's conflict of interest was so blindingly obvious that it beggars belief that management did not notice it.
Whilst TVNZ is partly culpable, the blame however rests primarily with Taurima, who made his own position, and those of some of his staff untenable.
There are just two unanswered questions. How much did the Labour Party know about Taurima's use of TVNZ resources for Labour Party activities? Given that Tamaki Makaurau branch meetings were held on TVNZ premises, and that David Cunliffe himself attended a hui facilitated by Taurima for party members, we'd say that the Labour Party knew quite a lot.
Which leads to the second question; did no one in the Labour Party, from Moira Coatsworth and David Cunliffe down see a potential conflict of interest in Mr Taurima's activism?
The Labour Party is not blameless in this messy business either. But we reiterate; most of the blame falls on Shane Taurima's shoulders.
