Clark makes his third apology for Guy Williams interview

Tuesday, 13 August 2024

Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark has made his third apology for the Guy Williams’ New Zealand Today TV interview.

The volatile interview, which screened in March related to his controversial defence of having used the N-word in an earlier arts meeting.

An independent inquiry later found he had breached the council’s code of conduct.

Clark has apologised initially through The Southland Times prior to the inquiry to “anyone who felt offended’’ and after the finding he supplied a written apology to a full council meeting which was read out by deputy mayor Tom Campbell.

Dissatisfied that he had not fronted in person, the council asked him to do so.

He did it on Tuesday.

“I need to make a public apology, which is part of the commitment I gave at the end of the code of conduct inquiry into the New Zealand Today TV show that I was party to,’’ he said.

“I just wish to acknowledge to my elected colleagues and to the community that by participating the way I did in that interview, that I breached the code of conduct expectations of elected members and portrayed the city in a very poor light.

“I’d also like to acknowledge that Tom has had a difficult role to play and I thank you for that.

“It’s not been easy to mop up some of the mess that we’ve had from that.”

In reaction mana whenua representative Evelyn Cook told Clark his “carefully worded’’ apology had been to elected members and the community, but he had also been asked to apologise to staff and mana whenua representatives who had also been part of the process and she hoped they had not been deliberately excluded.

The issue had been “challenging for all of us,’’ she said.

Clark said he had not differentiated between mana whenua representatives and elected members, who had all had a voice in the decision making process “and rightly so.’’

“My broad apology is to all those concerned,’’ he said. ”I certainly don’t wish to exclude anybody.’’Clark has been on something of an apology treadmill in recent months after the council had him apologise on July 30 following a separate investigation found he had breached the code with remarks he had made at a firefighters’ prize-giving dinner in March.

Cr Ria Bond, who with Cr Ian Pottinger lodged the code of conduct complaint over the Williams interview, said it “doesn’t sit smoothly with me’’ that the mayor had chosen Tuesday’s extraordinary council meeting to issue his apology.

She had understood the apology was to have been made at the next regularly scheduled council meeting, which is August 27.

Clark said the Tuesday meeting, which had been called to discuss the council’s submission on the representation reviews under way for Environment Southland and Southland District Council, had been the first available opportunity.

Clark has been on something of an apology treadmill in recent months after the council had him apologise on July 30 after a separate investigation found he had breached the code with remarks he had made at a firefighters’ prize-giving dinner in March.