‘Sleeper’ claims ridiculed

Press, 29 July 1989, Page 9

‘Sleeper’ claims ridiculed

By

JANE DUNBAR

Suggestions that 25 Ngai Tahu “sleepers’s’ have infiltrated the One New Zealand Foundation are ridiculous, says the chairman of the Ngai Tahu Trust Boad, Mr Tipene O’Regan. “Ngai Tahu people are far too busy being committed New Zealanders to be messing around with a crowd of Right-wing radicals,” he said.

A tongue-in-cheek report, published in an independent Maori newsletter last month, has recently been described as “highly 1 defamatory” by a One New Zealand Foundation spokesman, Mr Colin Robertson. It claimed that the top level of the organisation had been infiltrated by a maori agent and that Ngai Tahu “sleepers” had penetrated its branches.

Mr O’Regan said the position adopted by the One New Zealand Foundation on the Treaty of Waitangi clearly earnt its supporters the description of “Rightwing radicals.”

“I can understand people being opposed to the sort of values represented by the foundation, but infiltrating its structure and having to sit round at its meetings would be a waste of time and effort. “We are more interested in positive action geared to a better future for Ngai Tahu and our fellow New Zealanders,” Mr O’Regan said.