Dame Noeline Taurua: Reinstated Silver Ferns coach gives her first interview since the saga

Dame Noeline Taurua has broken her silence, following her suspension and reinstatement as Silver Ferns coach.

The 57-year-old and her coaching team were stood down in September after player concerns emerged from a Sydney training camp.

Interim coach Yvette McCausland-Durie is leading the team on next week’s Northern Tour.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking in her first interview since the saga, Taurua says the suspension was horrific, and she feels partly vindicated, but not fully back in the job.

She says her happy place is on court, training with the players, so there's still a bit to go until she's really back.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, what the story? It has been a Netball New
Zealand drops coach named Noel in Taru. After allegations from
some players of a psychologically unsafe environment, a mixture of confusion, silence, delay,
and eventually governed intervention ensues, culminating in a reinstatement. So
let's fill in some gaps for the first time in
this whole mess. Name Noel in Taroo is with us.
A very good morning to you, Good morning, welcome back.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Oh look, hay, can I probably first start by thanking
you on behalf of my south, the family and actually
the netbook community for keeping the home fires burning, so
to speak. But I'm elated to be back and it
feels like game day. If I'm going to be.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Honest, good do you sit here this morning happy and vindicated?
Or is there more to it? Look?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
I do sit here feeling happy. I don't take my
role lightly. I feel I'm a guardian as a head
coach number eleven, and I don't own it. Some degree.
I feel vindicated And that was a necessity, necessarity, necessity,

(01:06):
a necessary sort of statement that was included in the
public statement by Netball New Zealand but got a long
way to go.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
In what way?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Uh One, I need to be on court looking forward
to that, knowing that I have Commonwealth Games next year,
so I've got to work through the opportunities that present
in that way for me and also what needs to
be looked at moving forward for this team. I'm excited

(01:41):
by getting back out on court when that opportunity does present,
but also a bit of work to do behind the
scenes as well.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
The fact you're back but not back are you happy
about that?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Look, I'm back. It's probably the thing that I that
I'm holding on to and as I say as a coach,
my happy place is on court. It's on the training
with the players, it's in team meetings, it's what I do,
it's how I do it. And until I sort of
really get back in my eyes, then they're still a

(02:17):
bit to go. So but I'm happy. It's been a
long journey over the last two months, very horrific in
my eyes, but you know, I've got to where I
am and I'm proud of that I've been able to
stand in my own truth, so to speak.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Just for the record, a lot of people texted us
this question, are you as you speak to us this morning?
Constrained in any way in what you're able to say.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yes, I am. I am constrained, mainly because of what's
been signed, and I really want to honor that in
regards to the integrity that I have, but also the
balancing act I suppose that I have to be able
to put my truth out there. So I'm in my
conscious space, have been so conscious in my life, but

(03:02):
you know, I don't want to be I don't want
it to be the shortest reinstatement. I've had enough excitement
over the last two months, so but I also need
to put my truth out there. So this is a
balancing act that I'm prepared to walk.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Were you unfairly treated?

Speaker 2 (03:22):
The process that I needed to go through when I
was suspended or went through that was to then get
lawyers involved, and through Mintor Allison, who has actually helped
me amazingly, we've been able to They've been able to
work through a process and negotiate with NET for New

(03:43):
Zealand to be reinstated, hence me being here. Obviously there
are other options that could have been taken, which is
a legal option, but to be honest, I didn't want
to go there, you know, like that was my last
option to do. It would have been so to speak
for me because everything would have been laid out. But

(04:04):
I'm also very aware about taxpayers money. I'm aware about
Nepal community money, and I know that we don't have
a lot, so you know, that would have been my
last grasp. But I'm really really happy that my lawyers
have been able to negotiate and here I am.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
In really simple terms without re litigating the past. Was
it simply a case of some players didn't like the
way you treated them, they complained and that was the process.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
In real simple terms, I don't know, and I can't
tell you, and that's that's my truth. I'm not sort
of going on the lines I actually don't know, but
I can tell you that I am one hundred percent open.
It's my one I wonder if I'm going to be
honest of listening to players, listening to anybody as to

(04:57):
what concerns they have, and then look for solutions to
make it better. So that's just what I do and
how I do it, and I haven't stopped that at all,
and over my twenty five years, that's what I'm synonymous
with in regards to the culture and the environment that
I build. So that's all I can say in that matter.

(05:18):
But the question that you've asked, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
But when you say you don't know, when you sat
down with the management of the ball of netball in
New Zealand and they were standing you down, they were
standing you down for.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
What my truth is, I don't know. So that's where
my lawyers came to help in regards to negotiations and
to find out what the truth and then to work
through the process for me to come back. I was
always adamant on my reinstatement and that was my number

(05:50):
one option, with number two going legal if we needed to.
But I state once again that I am happy to
listen to any concerns got the solutions forward. But what
I what I also want to stand in as well,
is that it's not environmental. I'm happy for individuals to

(06:11):
tell the truth and if anything, I encourage that, but
there's some things. Once again, if it's environmental or the
around the team, I'll stand strong in that because I.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
Know it's not a lot of feedback in there break Noline,
as you would imagine. Can we just just for clarifications
sake when you refer to your truth is this legal advice.
You'd like to say other things, but you've been told
not to.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
When I say my truth, it's it's my integrity and
actually my truth, you know, it's it's my honesty around
where I stand. If I was talking about legal advice,
I'll say no comments or something like that.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
Okay, all right, this is me. Okay, Well, I just
no one seems to understand how you can be stood
down with no understanding of why you were stood down.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
I understand that, And I'm laughing because I understand that.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Okay, I think that's just enough of it. Were you
tempted at any point in the process to tell them
to stick it?

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah? Look, probably for the first four or five weeks
I grappled with that. Actually, probably for the whole time
I grappled with that. What I was really strong on
I felt that I had the support of the players
and the team, the majority. It was really important for

(07:36):
me to get my name cleared, but also for the
people that I work with as well. There's a massive
reputational damage around when when things are put out around
psychological harm and fear in the culture, in the environment
that we work in, and you know, it's really standing

(07:56):
up for those people, and what's right?

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Am I correct in saying that once they investigated they
found nothing. There wasn't an investigation, so there was no
investigation at all. No, why did it take so long?

Speaker 3 (08:15):
Then you with us?

Speaker 2 (08:28):
Hey, Mike, Yes, I'm on Breakfast Show, but I'm happy
to come back after I finished the Breakfast Show.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Okay, sure we can do that. Let me I've been.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
Ushered out to somewhere else, but I'm happy to come back.
Carry Sorry, listeners, Kerrie will make contact with you to
organize a time, hopefully today this morning. Then you can
ask me more questions.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
All right, I'd love to nice to talk. Appreciate it.
Noel in tarrua slightly odd end, but we might get
it back on after the Prime Minister if you got
a couple. I had a couple more questions left, but
the fact that she said there was no investigation seems
too weird. For more from the mic asking Breakfast listen
live to news Talks. It'd be from six am weekdays,

(09:14):
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