RNZ releases Kiri Allan speech transcript after Ombudsman ...

Former Cabinet Minister Kiri Allan. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Radio New Zealand has released a full transcript of a speech former Cabinet minister Kiri Allan gave at a leaving function for her then partner Māni Dunlop, after a decision from the Ombudsman.

Earlier this year Allan said she told RNZ she was happy for it to release the full transcript of a recording from her speech. However, RNZ declined the Herald’s Official Information Act request to access all of it and shared only a partial transcript.

The Herald filed a complaint with the Ombudsman. Today, Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier said RNZ should release a full transcript.

After opening in te reo, Allan said she came from a “group of bandied rebels”.

“I’m a fighter and a scrapper, and that might colour some of my remarks that I make today. And I say this – I say the things that I’m about to as Māni’s partner because I think sometimes these things just need to be said.”

She spoke of how Dunlop had joined RNZ straight out of broadcasting school and praised the grace she carried and her ability to bring people together.

Believe it or not, she said, the former couple did not talk about work.

“What you get is this incredibly vivacious woman who’s passionate and loves our people deeply, who’s a deep believer in the role of public broadcasting.

“What I’ve seen over the past two years has really broken my heart. I’ve seen a woman come home feeling broken and battered, always fighting, carrying an inordinate load to tell our people’s stories.”

While we all had “niggles” at work, she said Dunlop was kaupapa-driven and knew she had an obligation to use the position she was in.

“Not think so much about the battering and the bruising that she was getting in the daily environment and coming home and being held at night. She was thinking about our babies, she was thinking about the nannies and the koros that she can build relationships with up and down this country that I don’t know many people in the mainstream organisations can do.”

Over the recent cyclones, they could see Dunlop had the ability to speak to people that most of those in the room “could not even dream of getting a real yarn out of”, Allan said.

“She does this because she loves our people. She is part of our communities.”

Allan then referred to a conversation she had with a woman who asked why Dunlop was not staying at RNZ.

“What had that organisation done not to keep this talent? You don’t hear people in the Taumata Kōrero environment at Waitangi begging for some mainstream lady broadcaster to be kept in the [rock]. That is the mana that Māni has, in and of her own 31-year-old right that she has accrued.”

She spoke of Dunlop’s coverage of the 50th anniversary of the Māori language petition.

“It was a pretty big event for te ao Māori, had a lot to do with the normalisation of our reo and a whole 2000 people showed up down at Parliament to talk about the significance.”

She said the community respected and cherished the role Dunlop played in the event.

Allan told attendees she had heard others say, “Māni Dunlop, she puts this lovely Māori lens on things and she uses her reo, it’s just beautiful. Māni doesn’t put a Māori lens over things, she doesn’t just use her reo. She brought drive, a passion, commitment, relationships, integrity, honesty because she’s committed to public broadcasting.”

Soon, Allan said, there would be two young Māori workers left alone at RNZ, one an intern and another who might only just have finished their internship.

“We’re looking at these two and we’re looking at this organisation and how it treats its talent.

“It’s not her role to carry that any more. So it’s to this room and the people within this place to grow and nurture, show that they have a viable future within this organisation.

“I was supposed to say something nice, but don’t feel that life right here and now.”

The Ombudsman said RNZ refused the requests for the full speech on the basis that it needed to protect Allan’s privacy, the privacy of other individuals and to protect “the tikanga of RNZ and its kaimahi”.

“Based on the context in which the speech was given, as well as the personal nature of its content, I would generally be of the view that the speech should be withheld to protect the privacy of Ms Allan and Ms Dunlop,” Boshier said.

“However, both advised me they had no objections to a full transcript being released. Therefore, with the exception of the names of third parties referred to in the speech, RNZ was not entitled to withhold a transcript, given Ms Allan and Ms Dunlop supported the release.”