Unrepentant real estate agent: 'We erupted with rage at having to do this course'

A real estate agent on the verge of losing her licence after being denied an exemption from a compulsory Māori tikanga course says if she had her time again, she would still refuse to do it. 

“It’s totally irrelevant to the everyday work of real estate. 

“That we should learn to bow down to the Māori gods. That’s a major part. I downloaded the course book to see what it was about ... and I’m going, pardon? You’re asking me to do what?” Janet Dickson told NZME. 

“It’s [my real estate work] to do with property; it’s nothing to do with spiritual gods and tikanga.” 

The Real Estate Tribunal this week rejected Dickson’s request for an exemption from the compulsory course. 

With 30 years’ experience, she’s been left feeling teary and like her profession had betrayed her. 

The decision concludes a nearly three-year battle argued before the Real Estate Authority, the High Court and the tribunal. 

The authority has already signalled it is unlikely to reinstate Dickson’s licence after the tribunal’s decision, even though she said it hasn’t suspended or cancelled the licences of other agents found guilty of misconduct for “seriously negligent real estate agency work”. 

The authority introduced the mandatory course, Te Kākano (the Seed), in 2023. The 90-minute course comprised three modules: Māori language and development, the Treaty of Waitangi and Māori land. 

Dickson said when the course was introduced in late 2023, it drew outrage from many of the profession’s almost 17,000 real estate agents. 

“We erupted with rage at having to do this course, which had nothing to do with our work whatsoever.” 

But she said there wasn’t a co-ordinated response from the industry before the authority started sending threatening letters, which gave agents an ultimatum: either do the course or don’t work. 

“People were cowed, and many people left the job because they just wouldn’t do it. They took early retirement. 

“For me it was like, ‘Which part of the word no do you not understand?’ And then suddenly it became a national case.” 

She said those at the authority, who were responsible for introducing the course, should have, given the response, put it aside and suggested something else. 

But instead they dug their toes in, she said. 

Bad news 

Dickson said her life had been in limbo since she took her stance and refused to do the course in November 2023, leaving her unable to work as an agent because it was a condition of her licence. 

She describes the impact as “bad news” compounded by the recent loss of her husband and soulmate of 32 years, Grant Dickson, a bass and opera singer. 

The two would travel overseas, she as his manager and pianist, while he worked as her personal assistant, between his music. 

Real estate agent Janet Dickson outside the High Court in Wellington which heard her judicial review in 2024. 

Dickson insists her stance isn’t racial. She grew up among Māori families, taught at Bay of Islands College, which was predominantly Māori, and passed School Certificate Māori. 

Her father was chaplain to the 26th Battalion and good friends with Canon Wiremu “Wi” Te Tau Huata, a highly respected Māori Anglican chaplain. 

“That has been my soul upbringing. When my father was ill, he was like a godfather to us”. 

‘Hang in there’ 

Dickson said since the tribunal’s decision was published, she’s received support from up and down the country and said none of the responses were critical of her. 

“I’m getting emails every day. People saying ‘Hang in there’ and ‘If only I’d done the same thing’, or whatever. 

“It’s people I don’t even know saying ‘Gee, I wish I had done that in my field. I should have had the courage to stand up’.” 

She said there had been no decision on whether to appeal the ruling, but it was up to her lawyer, Stephen Franks, and Don Brash from Hobson’s Pledge, who had funded her case. 

Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently, she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.