Come clean on crimes: Morgan to Tainui

By JON STOKES

Tuku Morgan has fired a parting shot at Tainui's executive following his forced resignation yesterday, calling for "all board members to come clean" on any criminal history they may have.

The former MP was forced to quit after legal advice, sought by chairman Kingi Porima, confirmed that a 1983 conviction over a Treaty of Waitangi protest meant he was ineligible to serve as a member of Tekaumaarua, the executive, or Te Kauhanganui, the iwi Parliament.

Mr Morgan's resignation follows the forced departure of former Maori Affairs Minister Koro Wetere, who was convicted in 2001 of drink-driving.

Mr Morgan called for the rule to be changed or for all the remaining executive members and the 183 members of Te Kauhanganui to "front up" with their criminal history.

"If we are to continue to play be this rule then everyone should be checked. I stumped up. All members should."

He said three members of the board had refused to sign release forms allowing checks on their police records.

He declined, however, to name them.

Mr Porima said he did "not think the rule was tough" and there were no plans to change Tainui's constitution.

He said that if there were doubts over the eligibility of other members of the executive and parliament, it was up to their individual maraes to vet candidates.

While Mr Morgan's resignation was accepted at an executive meeting yesterday, a decision on the fate of former co-chairman Haydn Solomon remains unresolved.

A vote on whether to sack him was put off until next month.

The motion was tabled last month after the release of a report into the tribe's involvement in controversial Corrections Department contracts.

That report, by Hamilton-based Forensic Investigations, included allegations that Mr Solomon and three other Tainui staff invoiced both the Corrections Department and the tribe for more than $10,000 each for the same consulting work on the proposed Springhill Prison near Meremere.

With numbers on Tainui's 12-member executive now reduced to nine, Mr Porima said it was likely that elections would be held in the "next few months" to elect new members.