LEN BROWN - ONE TERM MAYOR

The funding debacle surrounding the Maori Statutory Board for the Auckland Super City is a long way off being resolved.

So far Len Brown and local body administration newbie CEO Doug McKay have made a pigs arse out of the first few months in power.

McKays reputation in the Seafood industry when he was the head of the Maori fisheries Juggernaut - Sealords, was patchy. 

And now he is looking especially vulnerable - as he was central to sorting out the funding issues for the board, not so ably assisted by consultant Angus Davidson. The same Angus Davidson, we wonder who used to run the Pork Board?

So it seems the two boys who know a lot about booze, pigs and fish are having a few problems dealing with Maori.

We predict that none of this is going to play out nicely. Maori acted in good faith with the Council administration to decide on a budget that they believed fitted their needs.

That they managed to secure themselves the equivalent of a Rolls Royce, when all they needed was a Toyota Camry, says quite a bit about their financial and negotiation skills.

In fact, one would have to consider that they may have more ability in running Auckland than a bloke who knows a bit about fish and booze assisted by another bloke who has huge expertise in pigs. Add to that a Mayor who is just plain slap happy and you are not going to get a happy ending. In fact it looks a bit like Dumb and Dumber assisted by Mr Bean.

So we don't think that the Maori Board deserves the opprobrium that is being heaped on them from the media and the Super City Council. To date, the Maori fellas have shown themselves to be way smarter than anyone else involved in this issue and they have acted with dignity and good grace.

We wonder if it was instead - say a enterprise advisory board to the council - instead of a bunch of what are percieved to be "uppity brown people" - would the issue would have ever got this far and stirred up such anti Maori sentiment?

We do think however, that the Maori statutory board is a complete crock. Maori are quite capable of getting to the ballot box and organising decent candidates for an election as they have shown with the formation of the Maori Party.

All the Auckland Super City really needed was a small advisory board of 5 that could input on specific cultural issues.

But that's not what happened and its not the fault of Maori that they negotiated a really good deal with a bunch of naive dorks.

So today the Maori Board takes the matter to court. They might just win. After all the did a deal in good faith and the Council welched on that deal.

Crikey sounds a bit like something that happened around 1840....