No respect for no-show
Colleagues of a controversial councillor say he has lost their respect after he failed to turn up to a meeting to apologise for comments made about singing the national anthem in te reo.
In January, New Plymouth District councillor Murray Chong commented on social media that he was ashamed to sing the te reo version of the anthem, later apologising for his comment after a public outcry.
He had agreed to attend an extraordinary council meeting on Tuesday to publicly apologise for claims he inferred other councillors felt the same way but then failed to show up.
Deputy mayor Richard Jordan said he was disappointed at Chong’s no-show as the councillor had shaken his hand and promised he would be at Tuesday’s meeting.
‘‘I have very little respect for anyone who doesn’t keep their word.’’
Councillor Gordon Brown said he was also upset by Chong’s noshow as he had assured the mayor and deputy mayor he would be there.
‘‘I’m very disappointed in him because his apology, that he initially made, he then resiled from on Facebook the very next day,’’ Brown said.
Councillor Richard Handley said he wanted to look Chong in the eye when he made his apology.
But when he failed to show up Handley pushed Chong’s chair back and threw away the councillor’s name badge to indicate he was unhappy by his nonappearance.
Handley said it was one thing to apologise on Facebook, but it was another to show some courage and take responsibility and do it in person.
‘‘He has failed that test.’’ Councillor Harry Duynhoven described the no-show as a surprise.
‘‘I thought he was a bloke who normally said this is how I am and did what he said he would,’’ Duynhoven said.
For his part Chong has denied he ever claimed other councillors shared his view on being ashamed to sing the anthem in te reo.
‘‘I never said that they thought the same as me.
‘‘All I said was I have also noticed other councillors not singing as well. But I never said they shared my view why they don’t sing it.
‘‘They might not sing it for a totally different reason.’’
Chong would not say which councillors he had witnessed not singing the anthem in te reo but said it was during the past five years, so it could have been those he served with in his first term.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Neil Holdom said people were entitled to their own opinion but Chong had been out of line when he also implied others around the table felt the same way as he did about the Maori version of God Defend New Zealand.
Yesterday, Jordan said Chong had also made the accusation about councillors and their attitudes to the Maori version directly to him.
Holdom was now making moves for the council to consider whether it was appropriate to remove Chong from chairing the council’s Age and Accessibility Committee.
All of the councillors spoken to yesterday said they sang the anthem in both languages or at least attempted to.