A real estate agent who is putting her career on the line over a 90-minute course in Māori culture and tikānga is being urged to “get amongst it” by others in the field.
Janet Dickson is facing a five-year ban for refusing to complete the compulsory short course called Te Kākano (The Seed).
She described the mandatory online course as “woke madness” and has launched a legal battle based on concerns that an industry body can force its members to complete training “on a subject that is only peripherally connected to their job under threat of losing their right to work”.
Proud Māori real estate agent Tama Emery empathised with Dickson, saying the course “was different and sometimes change can be challenging.”
But he said Te Kākano was an opportunity for growth and expansion.
“Doing this course doesn’t take away from anybody, nor does it ask anyone to change their beliefs,” he said.
“Just like any opportunity to learn – whether it be for Māori culture, Chinese culture – it’s about adding to your basket of knowledge.”
Emery said Māori always aimed to be “mana-enhancing” and Te Kākano was a way of doing that – using knowledge to lift up and empower others.
“Enriching your skill set with cultural understanding is mana-enhancing,” Emery said.
On his website Emery, who has had more than $25 million in sales in three years, said he “weaves tikanga and whakapapa into the world of real estate”.
He has also gained knowledge from Indian, Asian, Samoan and American cultures.
“That has only had a positive impact on my work and the way I engage with others. I can relate, I can connect, I understand. Māori culture has the power to do the same thing.”
The course outline for Te Kākano says it will “provide licensees with an opportunity to develop or deepen their understanding of Māori culture, language and custom, particularly with respect to land, and an understanding of the historical context of Te Tiriti o Waitangi”.
Another Harcourts agent said learning more about Māori culture and connection to the land was important and he saw the relevance.
“Also, the REA [Real Estate Authority] has stipulated that it’s a new part of our learning curriculum, and you have to do it, so instead of making a fuss, get amongst it and see if there is anything positive you can take out of it,” the agent said.
“Pushing back will only end in a disaster for you that’s for sure.”
Another agent, who has been in real estate for more than 30 years, said she initially questioned the relevance of the course but changed her view after completing it.
“I did it because I had to and it was required but I actually enjoyed it. I thought I knew a lot about Māori culture but I feel better educated now,” the woman said.
“It’s an hour and a half out of your life and there’s a huge positive – I spend longer than that scrolling social media some days.”
Te Kākano was one of the two compulsory topics for 2023 but has since moved into the elective category for 2024 – meaning it’s not compulsory for new real estate agents.
However, it’s still compulsory for Dickson.
She is now seeking a judicial review of the REA’s power to enforce cultural training for the country’s realtors.
As well as hiring a lawyer, Dickson is backed by lobby group Hobson’s Pledge, which is led by former National Party leader Don Brash.
According to Hobson Pledge’s website, a judicial review could cost as much as $150,000 and the lobby group is seeking donations of up to $50,000 to contribute to Dickson’s legal fund and to get the process off the ground.
Enlisted real estate agents must complete two hours of compulsory training as well as eight hours of training from a list of elective topics each year to retain their licence.
Compulsory training in the past has covered the code of conduct, the building code and dealing with customers fairly.
Bert Potter (front) and residents of the Centrepoint Community in Albany. Photo / Supplied
A multimillion-dollar Auckland property that was the site of New Zealand’s most infamous commune, Centrepoint, has been withdrawn from sale without finding a buyer.
The huge site in the city’s north has a council valuation of almost $9 million and had been billed as “one of the last significant underdeveloped landholdings on the fringe of Albany”.
It also has a dark history as it was where Bert Potter served as the spiritual head of the Centrepoint commune.
Potter was arrested in 1990 for sexual abuse and drugs crime, with survivors sharing stories of life in the commune in the acclaimed documentary, Heaven and Hell – The Centrepoint Story, in 2021. Many of them had been exploited as children by adults living at the commune.
The commune was shut in 2000 and Potter died in 2012, aged 86.
Since then, the property at 14 Mills Lane has been run as a wellness and retreat centre, before being put up for sale and marketed last year as a big development opportunity.
However, agent Michael Nees, from Bayleys North Shore Commercial, said the property did not get a buyer “so it was withdrawn from the market” at the seller’s wish.
Advertisements for the sale of the site were taken down from property website OneRoof in December.
Council has valued the 7.62ha site at $8.7m, but it is believed the owners had hoped to get more than $10m.
Owners Prema Charitable Trust bought the property in 2008 for just over $4m. The trust operates the Kawai Purapura retreat at the site, which was also home to the Wellpark College of Natural Therapies.
It had been advertised as “an incomparable opportunity” to secure a huge slice of city land where applying for rezoning could generate “considerable value uplift”.
The site sits on land overlooking Albany’s commercial precinct and is close to Albany Bus Station and Westfield shopping centre.
Centrepoint was opened by Potter in 1977 and at its peak had a permit for 244 fulltime residents.
It was based on therapeutic encounter groups popularised in California in the 1960s, promising social transformation by encouraging open communication.
The commune was shut down in 2000 after some leaders, including Potter, were convicted of sexual abuse and drugs crimes.
Potter was convicted and sentenced in 1990 to three and a half years in jail on drug charges and in 1992 to seven and a half years for indecent assaults on five children, some as young as 3.
Other men were also convicted of indecently assaulting minors, sexually assaulting minors and attempted rape of a minor.
A 2010 Massey University study revealed that one in every three children at Centrepoint was sexually abused.
Three survivors from the infamous cult spoke out in 2021, writing an open letter calling for restorative justice for children who were abused.
Christchurch GP Caroline Ansley wrote the letter with two other Centrepoint survivors, who are featured in the TVNZ docudrama Heaven and Hell – The Centrepoint Story.
Ansley said realising she was not the only one who was abused was empowering.
“I had to ask myself what’s worse – fear of exposure or the disappointment of not advocating for the right thing.”
The trio asked in their letter that former Centrepoint members consider “their obligations towards the children of the community” and acknowledge the resulting social, emotional and psychological difficulties many still experience as adults.
“We ask you to hear our voices. We ask you to set aside your complex feelings surrounding this issue and acknowledge our realities. We ask that you work with us to find ways to enable healing and restoration of the history.”
Drugs such as LSD and ecstasy were manufactured on the property and taken in group experiments that involved youngsters.
“This potent mix of social control, parental child neglect, drug use and hyper-sexuality set the scene for child abuse to occur,” the letter stated.
The signatories, some of them anonymous but known to the authors, include Louise Winn. She was only 11 when she was brought to Potter’s hut by his wife Margie. She was later also sexually abused by his son John Potter and other men.
To keep predators away at night, the girl barricaded herself with junk in her caravan on the property or escaped into the bush.