The executive board of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands has reappointed embattled general manager Richard King in a vote held in Adelaide that is being contested by some members.
Mr King's reappointment is for one year, "whilst the recruitment process for a new general manager is undertaken", according to a press release from APY Incorporated.
The special meeting of the executive board was held after Indigenous Affairs Minister Kyam Maher ordered the board to resolve the question of the general manager's appointment by March 17.
"I'm glad to have some clarity from the executive board," Mr King told the ABC.
"It's good for them to stand up. I was actually quite proud that they stood up for themselves and finally made a decision to move forward."
The meeting was not attended by all board members, with some remaining on the lands and others away on cultural business.
Two supporters of board members opposed to Mr King protested against his reappointment outside the meeting on Thursday.
"We (the protesters) want the executive board to be allowed to function as it should and make the decision it wants to make, which is to remove Richard King," demonstrator Christina Emblem told the ABC.
However, Mr King claimed eight board members supported his reappointment and four opposed it.
The reappointment is disputed by at least two members of the executive board, who said Mr King's contract lapsed and the board voted in October to replace him with a new general manager, Greg Jobson.
Mr King, who has been APY general manager since April 2015, alleged that the October meeting was not valid because it had been cancelled by APY board chairman Bernard Singer.
Some members of the APY executive board, led by deputy chair Owen Burton and Trevor Adamson, have allegedly been trying to remove Mr King for several years.
They objected to Mr King's reappointment this week, sending board chairman Mr Singer a letter from their lawyer.
"Our client is concerned that there was pressure placed on three members who had signed motion papers against Mr King's reappointment," the letter reads.
"Faced with these events we are of the view that the board process relating to agenda item 5 was so irregular as to render yesterday's vote invalid and of no effect, leaving the resolutions of 4 October 2022 standing, which has already dealt with the removal of Mr King and the appointment of Mr Greg Jobson as Interim General Manager."
Members opposed to Mr King have made numerous claims of alleged misconduct about him to the Aboriginal affairs minister and ombudsman.
A "schedule" of alleged misconduct sent to the minister and ombudsman on March 10 makes 16 allegations, including that Mr King:
- "Lied to and misrepresented to the board" that legal costs of $240,000 incurred by APY were incurred to deal with Freedom of Information (FOI) applications
- Assaulted a board member and his wife at a special general meeting in 2021
- "Falsely represented that the board meeting of 4 October 2022 was invalid and obstructed the implementation of the board's resolutions"
Mr King denies any misconduct.
Regarding the $240,000, he reiterated that the cost had come from dealing with FOI requests.
"FOI is expensive," he said.
Regarding the alleged assault, he said he was acting in self-defence when he himself was struck from behind and was not charged.
"It's totally false. I was simply defending myself," he said.
Regarding the allegation he blocked the board members' resolutions, Mr King said they had not been passed at valid meetings.
"End of the day, there's a statutory officer that's appointed by the minister. If they want to get rid of someone, it has to be done within the confines of a valid meeting," he said.
Mr King told the ABC he was an experienced administrator who had spent years dealing with an obstructive and dysfunctional element of the executive board which objected to his attempts to improve governance on the lands.
"General managers are there to say 'no' to hare-brained schemes or to schemes that are going to stop people moving ahead and undermine the organisation in terms of delivering real outcomes," he said.
"And I've had to say 'no' many times in this job, and those people who are making false allegations are the very people that say I say 'no' to."
He is supported by current board chairman Mr Singer, who said the latest board resolution should end the dispute.
"Since Richard's come on, there's been big, big changes happening on the lands, all these type of things," he said.
The deepening stoush eventually led Aboriginal Affairs Minister Mr Maher to direct the board to meet this week and resolve the question of Mr King's appointment.
But Mr Burton, a former board chair, also claimed Mr King's reappointment was not legal and alleged that people in many APY communities would not support it.
"I'm saying that meeting should be invalid because it was not in APY land," he told the ABC by phone from Pukutja.
APY executive board meetings are normally held at Umuwa, where most of the government services on the lands are located.
Mr Burton said he would now seek a special general meeting of Anangu people, which could resolve to direct the board to sack Mr King.
