NZ HERALD Retracts and Unreservedly Withdraws and Apologises to Mercury Bay Local Businessman

Mercury Bay local resident Grahame Christian has been fighting for over two years to clear his name and the reputation of the company he founded in 1993 – Smart Environmental Limited. In August 2019, NZME as the owner of NZ Herald published two articles concerning Smart Environmental Limited and its founder and then Managing Director, Grahame Christian.

As a true local, born in Thames, and his Iwi being Ngati Maru (mother) and Ngati Huarere (father), and now living in Whitianga, he said it had been  hurtful, as he’d been unable to defend himself against the allegations and rumours that have continued to swirl around him following the publication of these stories.

The articles alleged that the business had engaged in inappropriate and dishonest practices concerning parts of its performance of a contract with Thames Coromandel District Council. The articles were published in both the paper and on its website.

These allegations were a complete surprise to Mr Christian and the journey to clear his name commenced with defamation proceedings against NZME and the reporter who wrote the articles and an ex-employee of Smart Environmental Limited, Mr Murray Bain who was named as the source of the articles.

The allegations prompted Thames Coromandel District Council to engage accountancy company PwC and specialist consultancy company Morrison Low and a Private Investigator to look into the allegations. Their findings in summary said;

1. Smart Environmental Limited engaged in correspondence with the Council in relation to its commercial waste disposal fees from around April 2018;
2. Smart Environmental Limited’s tolling fees were charged in reliance on that 2018 correspondence; and
3. While there were discrepancies in relation to the waste tonnages entering the Thames-Coromandel RTS sites, based on the information provided to the investigators, the discrepancies did not appear to be significant. The Council published its findings in response to the allegations in the articles on 11 May 2020.

This has led to NZME as publisher of the NZ Herald issuing an apology and a retraction of the allegations made in the articles published in August 2019.

Mr Christian has issued a statement as follows;

“In July 2019 I stood down as Managing Director of Smart Environmental (Smart). A company which I had founded in 1993 and which had grown to a nationwide business.

Shortly after standing down, two articles appeared in the New Zealand Herald – published by NZME. The articles came as a complete shock to both me and Smart. I immediately issued defamation proceedings in the High Court at Auckland against NZME, Michael Valintine (the contract reporter) and Murray Bain, an ex-employee, owner of Coastal Bins a competitor to Smart, and source for the articles. This was in August of 2019.

Over two years later I am very pleased to confirm that I have reached a satisfactory resolution of matters with NZME and Mr Valintine.

NZME has also today published an apology and retraction, apologising for the hurt it caused me and withdrawing all the articles’ allegations against me.  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/nzme-retraction-of-published-allegations-against-smart-environmental-limited-and-grahame-christian/Z4CGPW7RCOM4O3BTOBI7DILSHQ/ and posted below. Following that is the rebuttal to the allegations from Thames Coromandel District Council. I want to stress, that at no time have I ever been interviewed. How fair is that?

My proceedings against Mr Bain will continue. I believe he has been the primary source of allegations against me, and by Mr Bain’s own admission one of his main motivations in raising the allegations against me and Smart has been commercial, – to advance his own business interests.

It has been an incredibly painful two years for me. At a time that I had planned to look back on my life and to celebrate in the afterglow of my successes and to enjoy my new life, I was unable to do so. Unfortunately, my new life in Whitianga was also clouded by the articles in the local paper, repeating Mr Bain’s allegations, with Mr Bain again by his own admission being the primary source behind those newspaper articles.

Due to the articles, which were repeated throughout New Zealand, I felt that I had become tainted and therefore I was unable to provide the support to Smart Environmental that I was supposed to. I felt that I had become persona non grata.

If the allegations, effectively driven by Bain, had been true, I would have immediately attended to putting them right. It is impossible to attend to something that has not happened, and so you live with the untruths and murmurings both locally and nationally and which have continued to this day.

During this time my mum passed away and she was incredibly saddened to see her eldest son of whom she was so proud, damaged by something that he could simply not defend. My children also hurt for me.

The damage has been very real. It has been very raw, cruel and unfair.

I am very grateful to NZME for resolving this matter.    I am also very grateful that they have published the retraction and apology.  However, Murray Bain remains unrepentant. The defamation proceedings against him will continue and I am absolutely determined that I will see this matter through to a conclusion that recognises the harm that he has caused to me, my family, our extended whanau and the damage that has resulted.

I am really pleased to see the truth finally coming out and that I can speak more openly.

Thanks to the very many people who know me, and the untruths, and who have supported me throughout, I am very grateful.

The article in the NZ Herald that was published yesterday stated:

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NZME retraction of published allegations against Smart Environmental Limited and Grahame Christian

6 Nov, 2021 05:00 AM

NZ Herald

In August 2019 NZME published two articles concerning Smart Environmental Limited (“Smart”) and its founder and former Managing Director, Grahame Christian (“Mr Christian”).

The articles made allegations that Smart, while led by Mr Christian, had engaged in inappropriate and dishonest practices during part of its performance of a contract with Thames Coromandel District Council (“the Council”). The articles were published on the www.nzherald.co.nz website and in the New Zealand Herald newspaper.

Immediately following the publishing of the articles, Mr Christian commenced defamation proceedings in the High Court at Auckland against (inter alia) NZME and the contract reporter, Michael Valintine (“Mr Valintine”) and Murray Bain (“Murray Bain”), an ex-employee and director of a local competitor of Smart and source for the articles.

NZME, following a demand from Smart, temporarily disabled access to the articles to enable Smart and Mr Christian’s complaints to be investigated.

The Council engaged the accountancy and audit firm PWC, consultancy firm Morrison Low, and a Private Investigator. NZME has now received documentation which indicates that the Morrison Low and PWC investigative reports concluded (in summary):

1. Smart Environmental Limited engaged in correspondence with the Council in relation to its commercial waste disposal fees from around April 2018;
2. Smart Environmental Limited’s tolling fees were charged in reliance on that 2018 correspondence; and
3. While there were discrepancies in relation to the waste tonnages entering the Thames-Coromandel RTS sites, based on the information provided to the investigators, the discrepancies did not appear to be significant. The Council published its findings in response to the allegations in the articles on 11 May 2020.

NZME understands that Mr Christian was not interviewed by Morrison Low, PWC or the private investigator in relation to these matters.

NZME acknowledges that Mr Christian has enjoyed a justifiable and very good reputation in the community including as a result of his success in business. NZME also acknowledges and apologises for any damage to Mr Christian’s and Smart’s reputation and distress Mr Christian may have suffered through publication of the articles.

NZME will not be republishing the articles and unreservedly withdraws any allegations of wrongdoing against Smart and Mr Christian contained within them.

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TCDC also issued the following regarding the allegations against Smart Environmental Limited.

Contract negotiations with SMART concluded (TCDC)

Our Council and our solid waste contracting partner, Smart Environmental Ltd, have confirmed the continuing operation of the contract between them, under which Smart provides waste collection and disposal services in the Thames-Coromandel District.

We have been in negotiations with Smart for some time over a number of issues, including amending the contract to respond to China’s recent restriction on accepting recycling and waste.

Those negotiations took longer than anticipated after allegations were made against Smart of inappropriate conduct regarding the use of, and payment for, Council facilities.

We take our fiscal responsibilities and contract management very seriously. We engaged waste management experts Morrison Low and forensic services experts PwC to investigate the allegations, with Smart’s cooperation.

Those investigations have concluded that the allegations are either rebutted by the evidence or, in one instance, that the amounts involved were not material to the contract and therefore not necessary to determine.

With the investigations now concluded, we have resolved commercial issues directly with Smart, without any disruption to the Thames-Coromandel region’s waste collection and disposal services.

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