Wananga plots rescue plan to keep Government out

The embattled Te Wananga o Aotearoa's council last night agreed to present a financial rescue plan to the Education Minister in a bid to stop the Government seizing control of the institution.

The package, to be delivered to Trevor Mallard by Friday, will include plans to sell some of the wananga's $100 million assets to ease cashflow problems.

Chief executive Rongo Wetere said after the meeting on the campus in Te Awamutu last night that he believed the wananga's financial situation had been unfairly portrayed. He said the cashflow crisis was temporary and the council would seek to sell assets to ease it.

Dr Wetere blamed the shortfall on the non-payment of a $20 million suspensory loan which was part of the 2001 Treaty of Waitangi settlement.

He said negative publicity had prompted the Bank of New Zealand to withdraw the wananga's overdraft facilities. "Provided the financial package is accepted, we are confident the wananga will be profitable again by October."

Last night's hastily called crisis meeting, which lasted more than three hours, followed growing frustration within the wananga that the financial crisis was in part driven by the Government to force it into crown control.

A source on the council said it was accepted that the Government wanted to remove Dr Wetere and to drastically cut the wananga's size.

In March, the wananga agreed to crown manager Brian Roche's appointment because the Government was preventing its access to overdraft and borrowing facilities unless it agreed.

The 2001 treaty settlement gave the wananga $40 million and the suspensory loan facility of $15 million (plus an extra $5 million next year) which would convert into a permanent grant if conditions were met.

Mr Mallard said the suspensory loan had not been paid out because the wananga had not met all the conditions, such as meeting the educational needs of Maori.

Earlier yesterday, the minister met Dr Wetere, a crown appointee to the council, Wira Gardiner, and council chairman Craig Coxhead.

A spokeswoman for the minister said the meeting was to discuss whether he should form a preliminary view to appoint a commissioner.

On Monday, in addition to the $20 million short-term loan, the Government began the statutory steps to discharge the wananga's council and appoint a commissioner.

A council member told the Herald Mr Mallard's statement that the wananga's roll had dropped by about 25 per cent was instructive of his motives and selective of the facts.

"The wananga's enrolments are around the same if not a little bit up on last year."

The figures quoted by Mr Mallard compared this year's figures with the 34,000 enrolled in 2003.

Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia said the enrolment figures closely matched last year's, and the wananga was on target to meet this year's budget forecasts.

"It is entirely political to put a commissioner in place. It is an exercise in power and control."

Deputy chairman Jim Nicholls said it was incomprehensible that the wananga was being criticised for extending its courses to non-Maori.

"Do we not live in a society of free choice in which people can choose where they want to be educated?"