Janet Dickson: Real estate agent on her failed bid to not comply with the Tikanga Māori professional development course

A real estate agent who refused to take a compulsory Tikanga Māori course now faces a five-year ban after a failed court bid. 

The High Court's turned down Janet Dickson's request for a judicial review of decisions about agents' professional development requirements, which required taking a 90-minute class. 

Those who don't complete the module risk having their licences cancelled.  

They then can't reapply for five years.  

Janet Dickson calls it brainwashing and told Mike Hosking it has nothing to do with her work. 

She says she's grown up amongst Māori, and taught in a Māori school, so does not need to take the course. 

Dickson told Hosking that as a Christian, no one can make her worship Māori gods. 

She says after the legal approach failed, she's tooling up to fight for a law change, and won't be stepping back. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Didn't end well for Janet Dixon. So she's the real
estate agent who refused to do the seed as it's called,
which is the Maria Tetility treaty. Course, all real estate
agents must do as of twenty twenty three when they
made it compulsory. This was fought in the courts, and
yesterday the judge r all the real estate agent's authority were
within their rights to make it compulsory. So what now
Janet Dixon's will this? Good morning?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hey mornning mate.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
I saw I saw this coming, not because you're not right,
but because courts don't necessarily deal with common sense. They
deal with the sort of the rule of law. Are
you Are you disappointed?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Correct? Yeah? No, no, No, I mean personally I had no
hopes because I just didn't believe that anyone would have
the courage to front up. Yeah two bigger too, bigger,
two bigger kickback to come exactly because of the issues.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Has it been worth the fight in your view?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Oh gosh, yes, because we are fired up for step two.
Just to clarify the As a real estate salesperson, I've
been forced to try to Mari Tikkanga and the Treaty
of tonguey enforced compulsory education. I said, no, they will
take my license. The thing is, the result says that

(01:07):
the court believes that it is okay actually to force
the entire country, in all work to do the same thing,
to go through this kind of brainwashing with no relation
whatsoever to your work. And I have been brought up
amongst Maori. I've taught in a Mari school, et cetera,

(01:31):
et cetera. I don't need it.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
No, And for practical purposes, it doesn't make any difference
in selling a house, or having an open home, or
going to tender any of that. Does it or does it?

Speaker 2 (01:42):
It has no reflection on our work none where to
do with contract law and disclosure and you know, buying
and selling properties.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yep. What I find interesting is that I thought real
estate agent, so this was the association that had, according
to the court, the right to impose this particular law
and make it compulsory. I thought you guys were self employed.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yes, but we still are under a ah, the Justice Department,
the Real Estate Authority is a Crown entity. So yeah,
we've got obligations under there, and they've at this point
they've got the power to do it, and you know what,
the in the act it says it doesn't, so they can't. No,

(02:27):
nobody ever dreamed that anyone would do this. And our
next thing is to change the lawmak that's what we're.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Doing, well, changing the law. What about change? What about
the body itself? Is the body itself of an ideological
stand that if you've got different people within that body,
they would take a different decision to the one they've
taken or not.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
I believe so. Yes, I think it's this particular crowd,
the CEO leading yep. I believe so, and they've been
on it for a couple of years before it started. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
What about the counter argument? And that is that in
life sometimes you've got to suck up some stuff and
it is what it is.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Mike, this was way over the line. I will not
sit down and learn how to worship the Maori gods.
I'm a full one hundred percent con Christian. Sorry, that
does not work for me. Nobody can make me do that.
And you know, if for nothing else, that was it?
No way.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
So what are you going to do now? Because your
license will be suspended. I'm taking yep.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
I've got twenty days to for you know to recount,
but we've now been joined by the Free Speech Union.
So we've got Hops, we've got Frank's Ogilvy amazing busy
writing the law and Hops and Fredge during the funding
and others. And now we've got the Free Speech Union.

(03:49):
We're tooling up, not stepping back.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Nice to talk to Janet Jennet Dixon, real estate agent.
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