KEY POINTS:
A long-serving volunteer firefighter denies he is a racist after covering up a Maori phrase on his uniform, saying he was taking a stand against "political correctness".
Nigel Thomas, 38, was stood down last month after complaints that he had blacked out the phrase "Whakaratonga Iwi (service to
people)" printed on his uniform beneath the Fire Service crest. He has since uncovered the phrase.
The Maori Party said it appreciated the Fire Service standing him down for "both defiling his uniform and treating te reo Maori with such disrespect".
Mr Thomas, a volunteer firefighter of about 20 years, told the Herald the Fire Service's handling of the affair made him look like a racist.
"It's not about race. I have got nothing against Maori.
"It's got nothing to do with ethnicity. It's about political correctness."
Mr Thomas, who volunteers in the small central Canterbury town of Leeston, said he had decided to break his silence on the issue after comments by the Fire Service on the matter. Canterbury region fire commander Rob Saunders said volunteers had rules to abide by and the service was committed to the input of all ethnic groups in its brigades.
"If it's open to all ethnicities, why the hell haven't they got Chinese, Japanese, Islamic words right down the whole [uniform]?" Mr Thomas said.
"No one in the Fire Service could tell me what whakaratonga iwi meant. I rang Christchurch, they did not know. They said we will put you through to Wellington, but don't tell Wellington that we don't know. No one in Wellington could tell me. It took an hour and a half to come back from the iwi liaison officer for the Fire Service with a meaning."
"Okay, it means 'service for the people' - it means something to me now. If you are going to have something like that on your crest, it should be well known to everybody, especially the people who are working for it."
The Fire Service's national headquarters referred all queries about the matter to Mr Saunders. Mr Saunders could not be reached yesterday.
Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples said the case involving Mr Thomas demonstrated the desperate need for Government to better promote the Maori language.
"The Fire Service is trying to demonstrate respect for te reo Maori as an official language, as well as their commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi," Dr Sharples said.
Dr Rawiri Taonui, head of Canterbury University's School of Maori and Indigenous Studies, said the Fire Service should "take [Mr Thomas] out and hose him down and get him to wake up".
"I don't like the Union Jack in the corner of the flag, but I don't go around climbing up flag poles and trying to black it out."
Mr Thomas was due to meet senior Fire Service staff about the issue last night, in what he expected to be a "telling-off meeting".
Any attempt to throw him out would only hurt the people of Leeston, who desperately needed their volunteer firefighters.
Mr Thomas's actions comes as former Corrections officer Josie Bullock is claiming $116,344 in compensation after being fired for speaking out after a Maori ceremony in which she refused to adhere to protocol in which women must sit behind men.