Clear signs of manipulation, judge decides

By BERNARD ORSMAN

A Grey Lynn man, Ike Finau, has won the latest round in a long-running battle to display political billboards in his front yard after a judge ruled he was a pawn in a game and should not go to jail.

Judge Roderick Joyce, QC, has cancelled an order to jail the father of two for 21 days for thumbing his nose at a court order to remove the signs.

Finau yesterday said he would "keep fighting for my rights and the rights of all New Zealanders". On Tuesday he erected a new sign on his property in Warnock St criticising the Governor-General, Dame Silvia Cartwright.

Finau said his rights under the Bill of Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights overrode any council by-laws banning political signs on his property.

Last night the council welcomed the judge's decisions and said it was considering other enforcement options against Finau - including seizing the signs and fining him up to $20,000 under new powers.

Compliance monitoring manager Barry Smedts said the council agreed with Judge Joyce that the wrong person was in the dock.

The judge, who had asked Finau to speak on his own account in the Auckland District Court on February 20, said it became self-evident that he was "but a pawn in a game being played out by others, using him for their own ends".

"In short, the persons truly responsible for his defiance of the court's order are not before the court," Judge Joyce said in a written ruling.

Finau disagreed. He is a member of the Water Pressure Group, a small, vocal and radical group led by Penny Bright. The group's actions have included demonstrating outside the home of former Auckland City councillor Phil Raffills when he was dying of cancer and calling politicians traitors and liars.

Finau began erecting signs more than three years ago abusing City Vision councillors Dr Bruce Hucker and Penny Sefuiva.

After failing to convince Finau to take them down, the council obtained a court order a year ago.

In December, Judge Joyce declared Finau in contempt of court for ignoring it and gave him until January 17 to obey or face jail.

After the final deadline, the council urged the judge to reconsider the jail threat on the grounds that Finau had toned down the signs, and Finau and his supporters were using the prospect of jail to cast him as a martyr.

The judge dismissed these arguments, saying he was left with the impression that the council had come back to court for help with what it perceived necessary for "damage control".

Events in court were "distinctly enlightening". A man in the gallery tried to take a seat at the bench and speak for Finau but he was obviously unsuitable for such a role.

The judge required Finau to speak - "after all, it was his liberty that was at stake" - and he read hand-written submissions that were irrelevant.

After a while Finau showed signs of distress. After a brief adjournment, he read a new written submission that, like the first, was clearly the "handiwork of another".

To enforce the jail order, concluded Judge Joyce, "would be to punish a mere pawn".

Protester escapes jail

Ike Finau, of the radical anti-privatisation Water Pressure Group, has refused
to remove signs from his Grey Lynn property. The slogans have bagged
politicians for more than three years. Auckland City Council got a court order
last year to remove the signs.

*In December, Judge Roderick Joyce declared Finau in contempt of court
and gave him a deadline of January 17 to remove the signs or go to jail.
*In late January the council asked the judge to cancel that order.
*This week, Judge Joyce rules that Finau is a pawn in a game being played by others.

What the judge said

"I required that Mr Finau speak on his own account … After all, it was his liberty that was at stake … Mr Finau's obvious unfamiliarity with the content of the material he read out made plain that none of any of it was really his handiwork."

"The suspicions I had already begun to harbour that Mr Finau was but a pawn in a game being played out by others, using him for their own ends ... Mr Finau has been … used as the instrument of others in pursuit of their own agendas. In short, the persons truly responsible for his defiance of the court's order are not before the court."