Mike's Second Part of interview with Dame Noeline Taurua

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.

Listen to the second part of her interview with Mike Hosking. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's conclude our interview this morning with Dame Norlan Tabaru,
who is back with us. Nolan, when we when when
you were kidnapped and taken away. Let me just go
back to this business of there was no investigation. Are
you literally telling us there was no investigation at all?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Ye's correct?

Speaker 1 (00:18):
So what was going on between when they elevated the
situation in July to what happened last week where you
got reinstated. What literally was happening in that period of.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Time, Well, for me, I was working with my lawyers
to be reinstated. That that was always my primary focus,
and them negotiating with the lawyers as to how we
could do that. So I was in survival mode, Mike,

(00:50):
and I was I was fighting for my life. So
that's that's really what two months was worth.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Okay, So, just for clarity's sake, you were never told
why you were being stood down and there was no investigation.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Uh correct.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
So what did your lawyers say?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, they said a lot, and I'm not gonna that's
one of the things I'm not going to repeat, but
they've actually said a lot. But what I can say,
I know I've been told actually by my mind, I
can you stop saying that you don't know? But what
I can actually say these four things that really matter
to me, and and those four things are about people,

(01:36):
They're about integrity, they're about process, and they're about the
Silverfoon legacy and the game. Those are the four things
that matter to me the most. I will one hundred
percent listen to players, like one hundred percent. That's my
one oh one. People are what I do and I
actually want to win. So you know, I stand strong

(01:59):
on those four things. And I could talk to that
like to cows come home. But there's some things that
I just can't talk about because I yeah, okay, to
stay away from the words that I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Gail Parata we had on the program when she quit,
she was one of the selectors. She said that the
fear for her from your situation is this seems a
chilling message to every coach in the country that it
could happen to them as well as what's happened to you.
Do you have that same fear?

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah. Look, one of the learnings that I've taken out
of this and I'll be strongly I'll strongly advocate for
this moving forward. And whatever I do is that is
that sport is not bigger than law. And you know,
the law is therefore the pretention of everybody, whether it's
the athletes, whether it's the staff, whether it's the coach,

(02:49):
and everybody, and the systems or the processes that are
in are very clear and clean. So I sort of
feel that there's gaps are now in our sporting system
because usually what happens with coaches and and you know
there's plenty of examples of that, whether it's the Hagar,
what's happened with football as well. I can understand why

(03:12):
coaches can't hang in there because you know, it's the
reputational damage that happens. It's so public a lot of times,
and it impacts on not only you as an individual
your career, but also your family. So it's very clear
what the processes are in regards to legally what needs
to happen for any resolution. So you know, it's a

(03:36):
tough world, and I will stand really strongly in regards
to due process and anything like this needs to happen
moving forward. I'll be right beside those coaches.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
All right, Nolan, We've got to wrap it up because
we're out of time. But I appreciate the time very much.
I'm sorry for what you've had to go through in
this period of time, but I'm glad sort of it
seems to have worked itself out in your back.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, thank you, thanks for your support.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Mike, not at almost to talk to you, Dame Noel
and Taruth. Hopefully we got enough out of that very
complicated business. It doesn't answer the question for my mind
anyway as to the dysfunction around netball New Zealand, because
you can't hide from that. There seems to have been
something deeply, deeply wrong with the way that nitball is
running this country. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,

(04:24):
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