Whanau refuge after the storm

By ELLEN READ


Two months on from her very public departure from the Labour Department, former civil servant Amokura Panoho is looking to the future.

Not ready to step back into full-time employment, she is still heavily involved in the Maori Party - but not interested in becoming a candidate - and is focused on Maori and family development.

Pitching herself as a specialist in Maori issues, her plans to set up a consultancy concentrating on community development remain on hold but she has hopes this could change after the next election.

"It does make me feel frustrated but I feel it's a temporary situation as I've got a well-established reputation. And I think when we get past the next election the environment will change. I think there will be a political outcome for Maori that will change the environment," she told the Herald.

Panoho left her Labour Department job at the end of July following complaints about her involvement at a Maori Party hui. Associate Maori Affairs Minister John Tamihere had sent two of his staff to the hui, who reported her presence. Panoho was spoken to by senior Labour Department officials and decided to resign.

Tamihere and fellow minister Trevor Mallard have since apologised to Panoho for comments they made during the incident but she is pursuing legal action.

She expects to be able to release more details about this next week.

"There has been a lot of media speculation about the amount of money the taxpayer's going to have to fork out. That's not the issue for me at all. My whole intention was to leave the department quickly and quietly," Panoho said.

Her aim was to create as little fuss as possible so as not to jeopardise employment opportunities. She hasn't tested the waters yet, as she doesn't feel comfortable that publicity surrounding her wouldn't impact badly on any organisation she worked for.

"There's a lot of attention on Maori development. When people are flat out trying to protect the policy they've worked hard to develop the last thing they want to do is to take on someone who may be deemed a political risk," Panoho said.

So, she's taking time out, "revisioning" and researching options.

Panoho and her husband have bought a property in Taranaki - where she is from - and are keen on developing the family interests. "By making that investment, the family knew that I was making that commitment and that it was an inevitable pathway for me," she said.

A second motivation was to prove to the rest of her family that it is possible to be more than just traditional one-house, one-holiday-a-year achievers.

The men in her family have mostly worked in the construction industry, travelling globally for jobs. They're now coming home and buying land.

"We're thinking now that we've got this amazing set of skill sets and now we're coming back together and working out how we can pool that kind of capability for the family." She said it's starting from a whanau development point of view and would hopefully spread to becoming more engaged in what's happening to the hapu and iwi.

Panoho is pleased her situation raised discussion about the role of public servants.

"There is a degree of fear among public servants. Don't rock the boat.

"But I made a conscious decision to get involved in something I believed in [the Maori Party] and I knew that there would come a time when I would need to make a call."