It’s three years since the Royal NZ Returned and Services Association began work to change its constitution. The process has divided the veterans’ movement with legal threats now flying as fresh details emerging around the sacking of a pivotal figure in New Zealand’s biggest Anzac Day event. David Fisher reports.
Anzac Day face-off looms for RSA amid fresh details of sacked president’s behaviour
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- RSAs across the country voted in favour of a new constitution that critics say robs local clubs of their independence;
- Most of Auckland’s RSAs opposed the new constitution, with district president Graham Gibson saying the region could go it alone;
- The national office says the changes will protect club assets for the benefit of veterans.
It’s three years since the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association began working on a constitutional change programme.
It was intended to more strongly focus clubs on veteran support.
With each individual club independent in its own right, the proposal has increased division in the broad community of RSAs.
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Some clubs offer hospitality and financial support to the wider community, while others have moved away from clubrooms in favour of a tight focus on veteran welfare.
It has taken place against a backdrop of financial failure at individual clubs, and estimates from former chair Martyn Dunne that failed ventures have eaten away at $100 million in assets developed over decades for the benefit of veteran welfare.
That tension could be on public display at Friday’s Anzac Day service at the Auckland Cenotaph with several large personalities at odds with each other in close proximity - particularly Gibson and his Auckland district deputy Keith Ingram, and national president Sir Wayne “Buck” Shelford.
Both Gibson and Ingram were recently sacked from their roles on the RSA’s presidents’ forum with Shelford featuring in their respective removals.
Gibson, also president of the Vietnam Veterans’ association, has long-curated the Auckland commemorations, pulling in larger crowds than seen elsewhere in the country.
The sacking of Gibson and - in a separate complaint - Ingram, sparked claims that opponents to the constitutional change were being targeted and forced out.
The Herald has previously reported that Gibson faced three complaints of alleged bad behaviour, including telling a woman she could sit on his knee while at a crowded RSA council event in October.
‘That’s why everyone hates the national office’
Details of that complaint and two others have now emerged in a copy of the RSA complaints’ committee finding, obtained by the Herald.
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It shows that Gibson was found to have made the comment, “Well I have a spare knee”, and that it was a “general jokey statement about a hypothetical person” made in a crowded space where seating was limited - rather than a personal invitation to a woman present.
However, the committee also found it was open to the woman who heard the words to interpret it as a personal invitation, as she was speaking with Gibson at the time and was the only woman nearby.
It found “the words used by Mr Gibson were highly inappropriate” and especially so “towards a much younger female”.
The other two claims of bad behaviour were that Gibson swore at a staff member, saying “that’s why everyone hates National Office”, and acted aggressively towards another staff member during the organising of an official welcome.
Gibson denied swearing although that complaint and the other were upheld, with the latter described as “at the lower end of the scale”.
In his defence, the committee recorded Gibson saying “the complaint lacks merit and that this hearing has been engineered to paint me in the darkest possible light”.
The recommendation that Gibson be sacked from his role as district president was upheld by the presidents’ forum.
Shelford told members Gibson had not met the “highest ethical standards of behaviour” required of leaders in the RSA.
Gibson, though, told the Herald that the Auckland district had rejected the decision. He said three days after the decision was issued, the Auckland clubs voted to retain him in the role of district president.
Ingram also retained his role with the Auckland clubs after being sacked from the forum following claims he made disparaging comments about former RNZRSA chairman Martyn Dunne.
As such, Gibson continues in his central organising role for tomorrow’s events which will bring him, Ingram and Shelford together for the most solemn Anzac Day moments.
Gibson said Shelford’s inclusion at the ceremony was a late switch so the national president could escort Governor General Dame Cindy Kiro to the cenotaph to lay a wreath in remembrance.
The Herald has learned that for a short period in early planning, Kiro was to be escorted by Shelford on one side and Ingram on the other.
Gibson said the plan now was to have rugby league legend Sir Graham Lowe lay a wreath for the Auckland clubs, as would Shelford in his national role.
The Herald approached the RSA for an interview with Shelford but they declined.
Gibson told the Herald RSA politics would not feature on Anzac Day: “It’s a day to remember our fallen.”
Before and after, though, the internal battles will continue with the contentious new constitution at the heart of the dispute.
‘I believe it’s going to court’
RSAs voted to adopt the new constitution earlier this month with 53% in favour, 43% against and 4% abstaining.
The vote also included RSAs across the country agreeing to adopt a “model constitution” put forward by the national office.
The success of the vote was celebrated by those driving change although Gibson called it a “hollow victory”.
He said there were issues among opponents with how the vote was conducted, with the existing constitution requiring 75% approval to pass fundamental changes.
He said the vote also afforded a vote to each club rather than clubs with more members having more voting power.
“I believe it’s going to go to ,” Gibson said. “No doubt about it.”
Gibson said the “bulk” of Auckland clubs voted against the new constitution and predicted that the divide in the RSA movement would see departures, leading to a loss of members nationally and a connected drop in funding to the national office from membership and poppy revenue.
“If you lose 30 big RSAs and their capitation [fees] then you’re in the shit,” he said of the national office.
Gibson said he believed those RSAs which left would be able to continue using the name “RSA” and the poppy emblem, despite the new constitution claiming existing emblems and symbols could not be used by any breakaway rebels.
He said the Auckland club was older than the national body and there was a 99-year history of poppy-making by Auckland and Christchurch RSAs which showed the fundraising method out-dated ownership by the national body.
RSA chief executive Evan Williams - who retired from the NZDF in July as a Major General and joined the RSA in November - acknowledged that the 53% vote in support was a marginal win for advocates of change but expected support to grow.
He said the specific reasons for clubs voting against the proposal were not known but would be explored in the months before the next annual meeting to see what could be done to meet their concerns.
He said the model constitution allowed for clubs to shape it to their specific character or needs and discussions to do so would likely see support for change grow.
Williams said the constitutional change was necessary to meet requirements in the new law governing incorporated societies but it also provided an opportunity to focus the RSA on its core business - supporting veterans.
Talk of a breakaway rebellion was “not what we would prefer”, he said, but that it was the right of individual RSAs to chart their own course.
He said the emblems and symbols associated with the RSA movement would not be available to those who left. He said efforts would be made to talk that through before a “more legally focused response”.
In terms of a current legal challenge over the vote, Williams said he was not aware of any action that had been lodged.
Williams said the change in the voting level and value of votes was made after legal advice and based on the transition rules for incorporated societies.
“The fundamental aspect to anything we are trying to do now has to be true to our core purposes which is to support veterans and their whanau.”
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He joined the Herald in 2004.
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