A Waikato kaumatua calls for apology from Sir William Gallagher

Tuesday, 28 November 2017

A Waikato kaumatua is calling for Sir William Gallagher to apologise.

A Waikato kaumatua wants Sir William Gallagher to apologise for claiming the Treaty of Waitangi is a farce, according to Māori Television.

Kaumatua Taitimu Maipi staged a protest about Gallagher's comments by marching into the Gallagher Group Limited office in Hamilton on Tuesday, dressed in a white supremacist costume with KKK on it.

Maipi asked to speak with Sir William when he entered the lobby, but staff locked the door. He was seen sitting on the ground talking to Gallagher Group staff before leaving the lobby without further incident.

Taitimu Maipi says Sir William Gallagher's comments about the Treaty of Waitangi were unacceptable.

Sir William, who joined the company his father founded, Gallagher Group, fresh out of university in 1962, made the comments during a speech to businesspeople at Waikato Stadium on Friday.

A Tainui leader has demonstrated at the Hamilton offices of Sir William Gallagher in a white robe with 'KKK' across it, following comments from Sir William that the Treaty of Waitangi is a 'fraud.' We talk to the robed protester.

* Gallagher's 'outdated, privileged and sad' view

* Sir Bill Gallagher: Integrity, hard work and smarts

Kaumatua Taitimu Maipi staged a protest about Gallagher's comments.

* A Hamilton knight's home is his castle**

He said the Treaty papers on display at Te Papa were fraudulent documents and the concept of the Treaty itself was a rort.

Taitimu Maipi marched into Gallagher Group Hamilton office on Tuesday morning dressed in a makeshift white robe marked with 'KKK'.

Maipi said on Māori TV's Kawekōrero Reporters programme Sir William's comments were unacceptable.

'At that age, he should have learnt something the time that he's been in Tainui,' Maipi said.

'I think the statement that was made by Sir William Gallagher was unacceptable in this day and age.'

Maipi compared Sir William to the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group formed in the US in 1865.

'I wanted to make a strong statement to those in support of him,' Maipi told Maori Television.

'Enough is enough. And there are some racist people [here] that are just as bad as those ones over in America.'

Maipi is a member of Maori activist group Ngā Tamatoa, who have protested Treaty of Waitangi abuses and been involved in the Bastion Point, Raglan Golf Course and Springbok Tour protests in the 1970s.