Coddington Deborah: Maori Television Service Bill — Second Reading 
Coddington Deborah: Maori Television Service Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:607;Page:4916] 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON (ACT NZ) 
: 
 I congratulate that member on his excellent speech and on his reasons for opposing this legislation. I rise on behalf of the ACT party to oppose this legislation also. There is no reason that taxpayers should be forced to fund a separate Maori television service and one that this Government has set up to fail. We all know that this is just a vote-buying exercise. It is interesting to look back on the election campaign when this television service was promised. In fact one could look back further than that to when Derek Fox stated that he would set up a separate Maori party which this Labour Government knew would challenge it because Mr Fox said that the Labour Government had not done enough for Maori. 
That caused great nervousness in Labour’s ranks so it cobbled together the Maori Television Service as a sop first to Derek Fox to get him on side. Of course the Maori party was abandoned. 
Look at the sad tale that the Maori Television Service has been since then. It was meant to be up and running months ago—it was meant to be going by June last year. Then we got the John Davy debacle and the unseemly scrap in Cabinet between the Minister of Maori Affairs and the Minister of Broadcasting over how Maori television would go to air—would it be VHF or UHF? 
We all know that Derek Fox made it quite clear that he preferred the TV3 option whereby the Government would swap a radio FM frequency with TV3 for channel 4. If the Government had done that the Maori Television Service could have gone to air almost immediately. It could have been out there now. Moreover it would not be dependent on the State for handouts. That option would have given the Maori Television Service the opportunity to operate as an independent commercially viable stand-alone television channel that would not be dependent on the State for funding. It would have been a bit like Mai FM is now in Auckland which constantly challenges the top-rating radio broadcasters because it is commercial. 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: How did it start? 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: Yes it started with taxpayer funding but with the way the Maori Television Service is now being run it will be dependent on $13 million a year just to operate the service and a predicted $155 million a year by 2005 just to make the programmes. The Minister of Broadcasting did not want that option because he wanted the Maori Television Service to be broadcast through a channel provided by BCL which is now the stand-alone company from Television New Zealand. As someone else pointed out those who want to receive Maori television will now have to pay hundreds of dollars to tune into it and if they live in an area where it is difficult to get reception—for example behind a hill—they will have to pay to get extra aerials. 
As I said the Minister is setting up Maori television to fail. The Government is pandering to the Maori vote and more than that I predict that this will provide ammunition for those rednecks out there who want to bash Maori because this television service will hoover-up taxpayers’ money. In the end it is doomed to fail. 
My colleague Rodney Hide has already revealed a huge wastage of taxpayers’ money which has been handed out to make television programmes for Maori television and that has been used on booze-ups for Ministers. As we see more taxpayers’ money wasted I predict there will be a repeat of the Aotearoa Television debacle and that is so unfair because New Zealanders who oppose this will just turn round and say: “Look at Maori. They can’t run business. They are constantly propped up by the taxpayers.” Of course it is in this Government’s interests to keep Maori dependent on Government handouts so that it can get the Maori vote at the next election. I gave a lot of interviews last year to iwi radio stations and they were totally opposed to the way this Government will broadcast Maori television. They knew it was being set up to fail and they dreaded the backlash that will surely result from it. 
Georgina te Heuheu raised a very good point when she mentioned the repeated intrusion of the Treaty of Waitangi into this legislation. I also predict that the Maori Television Service will be strangled by this Government’s passing of the Treaty of Waitangi buck into this legislation especially when this Government cannot even define the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and instead just claims that it is a nebulous living breathing document that is alive and well in Margaret Wilson’s office. How on earth is a television broadcaster meant to operate when it is strangled by the intrusion of the Treaty of Waitangi into the legislation that is set up to run it? The only good thing that has come out of this is the appointment of Wayne Walden who will hopefully inject some accountability into this television service. 
It is also interesting to note that this television service has resulted from litigation to the Privy Council—the same Privy Council that this Government will deny New Zealanders the right to appeal to. In its creeping move to republicanism it will remove the right of appeal to the Privy Council which is the same Privy Council that saved so-called precious te reo. I notice members are all very silent on that and looking the other way holding their heads in shame. Where would te reo be without the Privy Council? We have heard much cant about the need for members of this House to have lessons in how to speak Maori and I notice that that arrogance always emanates from the bleeding-heart white apologists. It would be really gratifying if members of this House took some lessons in English for a start before they started to think about being bilingual. 
As I say the ACT party opposes this legislation. It is doomed to fail. If this coalition Government really wanted to do something about education and prosperity for Maori it would give Maori parents some choice and as Bill Gudgeon has so passionately said it would bring up some standards in education. It would do something about the appalling rise in suspensions and stand-downs among Maori students. An alleged 4000 students are truanting and nothing has been done about it. It would reform welfare so that young Maori women would not be leaving school with no qualifications to bring up their babies on welfare. Where is the Minister of Social Services and Employment when a poor woman is crying at 4 o’clock in the morning because the washing machine has overflowed from all the sheets that are dirty and the baby is vomiting and she has no one who will put his or her arms around her and give her a hug while she has a big howl? What is the $13 million and the $155 million doing to raise the standards of education for women like that? 
If the Government wants to do something about education and prosperity for Maori it should not spend all that money on an entertainment channel which is doomed to fail and which is fodder for the rednecks. The Government should do something about giving choice back to Maori parents—and all parents—and power in their children’s education. We oppose this legislation.