Military Service Recognition

Yeah, well, it was last night, actually, and it was a great occasion. So we've got a wealth of things to talk about this week, actually. The perennial National Party leadership contest is up in the lights again. So we'll be wondering what, if anything, happens at tomorrow's National Party or today's National Party caucuses will be for those of you listening on Tuesday. I thought we'd also talk about. Candidate selections and an interesting candidate selection by New Zealand First with an ex All Black, Tane Randall and captain of the All Blacks being selected to run down in the Hastings seat. So I thought we might just talk a little bit about your experience and my experience with those All Blacks that many of them that have actually been elected to Parliament, some done averagely and some done not quite so well. But to pick up the topic that... You mentioned the event last night in Rotorua, hosted by the Te Arawa people and the Rotorua RSA, was in honour of a man by the name of Hane Manahi. Hane Manahi was a soldier in the B Company of the 28th Maori Battalion and was made famous in an incident that took place actually 83 years ago. today, and it was one of the last battles of the North African campaign. It was at a place called Takaruna Ridge, and if you get a chance to look at the photos of this, it's an amazing outcrop of rock that rises about, you know, a thousand feet out of the valley floor and the olive orchards. And this was held in April 1943 by three or four hundred troops from the Italian troops and German troops, and it was blocking the way. of the Allied advance. Hanay was a lance sergeant. He was leading the attack on this outcrop of land. In the end, they captured two 25-pound artillery pieces. They captured about 27 machine guns and over 300 prisoners. And this was a handful of men in the Maori Battalion. It was an enormous feat of gallantry and absolute determination. As a result of this, Hanae was recommended for a Victoria Cross. It went to the British War Office, and the British War Office crossed out VC and wrote DCM for Distinguished Conduct Medal. Well, you know, this outraged the Te Arawa people, and I was outraged when I read about it. The probable reason was that another Māori lieutenant, a guy by the name of Moananui Akiwa Ngā Rimu from C Company had got the VC three weeks earlier. And some Colonel Blimp in the war office had said we can't go giving two VCs to Māori New Zealanders in the space of just four weeks. And that's the only plausible explanation we've got. Well, years later, they set up a Manahe VC committee and I was asked. I was asked to lead a delegation to Buckingham Palace in London to ask the Queen to reconsider her decision. So we met with the Queen's private secretary, a guy called Sir Robin Janvrin. We got a very good hearing. But we knew that the Queen had established a strong position that her father, George VI, had said there will be no revisiting of awards made during the course of the war from the late 1940s. But this film is a celebration of his gallantry and, you know, in the week leading up to Anzac Day, yeah, lest we forget and Hanae Manae and his courage and his determination. and his resilience is something we should remember.