After racist rant, Tatua director 'deserved to lose his job', says Māori leader
Tuesday, 16 November 2021
A Tatua Dairy board of directors member who went on a racist tirade on social media has stood down, with a Māori leader welcoming his apparent sacking.
Facebook posts by Ross Townshend on November 9 depicted Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta as a gang member, accompanied by racist slurs questioning her ability to represent the country internationally. The posts have since been removed.
Tatua chairman Stephen Allen on Tuesday said Townshend had stood down with immediate effect.
“On Monday evening, it was brought to my attention that Mr Townshend had posted highly inappropriate messaging on social media in relation to a minister of Parliament,” Allen said.
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“Mr Townshend’s personal views and the way he chose to express them are incompatible with Tatua’s culture and values.
“Therefore, his actions left me with no other course of action than to accept his resignation on behalf of the Tatua board of directors,” Allen said.
He had spoken to Townshend and explained the reality of the situation, the difficult position he had put himself in and the connection that had with the company.
“I said it was untenable and we would have to go through a process. He thought about it and emailed me back, and resigned.”
Tatua had about 400 staff, most working in New Zealand and a few overseas. Allen was asked if the public could be assured the inappropriate behaviour by Townshend wasn’t embedded in the company.
“I guess you can’t, it is something you work on all the time.
“We moved rapidly within a couple of hours [of discovering the posts] and that shows how serious we take it, the feedback to that has been overwhelming.
“We have spent a lot of time over many years with our local community, the Government, and local iwi and we have good relationships.
“We are just devastated.”
Allen was made aware of posts after they were sent to him by another director and the company secretary.
He said correct use of social media and staff conduct was part of the company’s charter that every staff member was aware of.
“That’s what really blindsided us because everyone is acutely aware of it, it is reviewed every year and we live those values in the way we conduct ourselves individually, collectively, with our farmers, the community, our contractors.
“We interface with a great many people around New Zealand and internationally, we have built a good reputation and something like this is foreign to us.”
Media commentator and New Zealand Māori Authority chairman Matthew Tukaki said Townshend needed to be held to account for his actions.
“Here’s the thing: Any New Zealander, no matter whether they be Māori or non-Māori, when they post that sort of material I’m afraid they deserve to lose their job.
“They deserve to be called out on their behaviour.”
Tukaki said the picture posted of Mahuta “is not only offensive to Māori, it is offensive to all women, it is offensive to everyone and quite frankly he should atone for his sins”.
The posts circulated on Twitter on Monday evening, with users calling them “racist” and “utterly gross”.
One Twitter user commented: “@TatuaFoodsNZ you've got some curdled milk in your house. Old, white and truly off. Time to clean the fridge”.
Allen said he would be contacting the minister’s office to provide an explanation and personal apology.
“An incident of such offensive disrespect is simply not who we [Tatua] are,” Allen said.
Townshend has been an independent Tatua Dairy board member since 2009.
He has a background with New Zealand Dairy Group, New Zealand Dairy Foods and the wider New Zealand and Australia dairy industry and has held international senior executive positions in a number of industries.
He is also a director of several engineering and private companies, including RML Engineering.
When contacted on Tuesday, Townshend was in “back to back” meetings so could not take a call.
He is also the Hamilton co-ordinator for the Groundswell NZ protests. Groundswell has been contacted for comment.