Ngapuhi leader Sonny Tau says his board had no option but to suspend the Ngati Hine iwi from attending board meetings, until further notice.
He says the Kaikohe based runanga decided this week, that until the iwi holds an annual meeting which complies with the Ngapuhi constitution, it can't have a representative sitting at the runanga board table.
Mr Tau says Ngati Hine's annual meeting this year broke the laws of the Ngapuhi constitution.
He says publication of when the meeting was to be held was wrong and denied people who may have wanted to stand as a board representative from the iwi, the chance to do so.
Mr Tau says Te Runanga a Iwi o Ngapuhi will welcome a Ngati Hine representative back to its board meetings, as long as the person is elected according to the rules.
But Ngati Hine's chairman, Waihoroi Shortland, rejects any suggestion that the annual meeting he chaired earlier this year broke any rules.
He says the iwi is happy with the way it's acted, and with the representative it appointed to sit at the Te Runanga a Iwi o Ngapuhi board table.
Mr Shortland says the annual meeting went through a robust process to elect a board representative, and the way the meeting was held was no different from what's been done for the past six years.
He says the fact the iwi's procedures don't line up with the runanga's constitution, is neither here nor there for Ngati Hine and doesn't cause him any grief.
