Action leads to race complaint

Press, 19 December 1989, Page 6

Action leads to race complaint

PA Auckland A West Auckland resident has lodged a complaint with the race relations conciliator over the recent taking of a Royal portrait from the Waitakere City Council chamber. Mr Chris Nixon accused the council of creating a situation whereby Maori members of the community were seen to be exempt from the law. The Mayor, Mr Assid Corban, removed a copy of the Treaty of

Waitangi from the main chamber wall six weeks ago, replacing it with a picture of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh. The portrait was taken and later returned by an angry Maori resident, Mr Ricky Houghton. Charges were not laid. In his complaint to the Race Relations Office yesterday, Mr Nixon said Mr Houghton’s action was illegal, regardless of the principles at stake. The council, he said, would

have pressed charges if “socalled Maori activism” had not been involved. Waitakere City’s chief executive, Mr Mark Dacombe, said the decision to drop the matter had been made by the police, not the council. “It would have blown the whole thing up if he (Houghton) had been prosecuted,” Mr Dacombe said. The race relations conciliator, Mr Chris Laidlaw, was not available for comment.