Mr Shadbolt shouts abuse

Press, 10 December 1983, Page 30

Mr Shadbolt shouts abuse

PA Auckland The Mayor of Waitemata, Mr Tim Shadbolt, shouted abuse on Thursday at the chairman of an Auckland Regional Authority committee as he left the meeting.

The planning committee’s chairman, Mr Alan McCulloch, had rebuked Mr Shadbolt for “remarks intended to incite racism.”

Mr Shadbolt objected to Mr McCulloch’s position as chairman when considering the subject of appointing a Maori representative to the committee. He said that Mr McCulloch had shown, through past comments, that he was biased. (Mr McCulloch resigned from the planning committee in 1979 when it decided to appoint a representative of the Auckland District Maori Council as a full committee member.) Mr McCulloch refused on Thursday, to accept Mr Shadbolt’s objection, saying the committee was “not

here to listen to you drivel on.” Mr Shadbolt invited Mr McCulloch to step outside, calling him “a gutless little punk ... using the chair as protection for making personal attacks on me.” He swore at Mr McCulloch as he left the meeting, still in its early stages. Earlier, Mr Shadbolt had spoken against Mr McCulloch’s recommendation that a member of the Auckland District Maori Council be invited to attend meetings and speak on subjects of interest to it, although the representative would not have voting rights as in the previous A.R.A. term. Mr Shadbolt termed the proposal a retrograde step. He said he was racist himself, “because I don’t like white people very much.”

Mr McCulloch said Mr Shadbolt had the prerogative of not liking white people but he (Mr McCulloch) took exception to the implication that the com-

mittee was racist. The committee has recommended that the author-

ity invite a representative to attend meetings, and speak, in line with Mr McCulloch’s proposal.