Burns Brendon: General Debate 
Burns Brendon: General Debate 
[Volume:658;Page:7025] 
BRENDON BURNS (Labour—Christchurch Central) 
: 
 I think it was Harold Wilson who said in the 1960s that a week is a long time in politics. Here we are in the 21st century and a day is a very very long time in politics. I think that rarely has the House seen two successive question times quite like yesterday’s and today’s. Yesterday the Minister of Maori Affairs Dr Pita Sharples sat slumped in his seat having just learnt that the Government was going to fund a rival bid by Television New Zealand (TVNZ) and TV3 against Maori Television’s effort to obtain the free-to-air rights to screen the Rugby World Cup. We cannot help but say his mana was trampled by that exercise. So was that of Maori Television—absolutely. I suggested last night in a blog that there would be some utu extracted from the Government because of that. 
Today we have seen exactly that occurring. There has been no sign today of “The Maestro” Jonathan Coleman. Instead we had the Leader of the House attempting to deny what the Minister of Broadcasting had said yesterday which was that the Government would fund TVNZ and TV3 to compete against Maori Television’s bid. This was a State agency bidding against a State agency. This is a Government that makes a virtue out of frugality and out of the need to cut funding. We were going to have a situation of two State agencies bidding against each other to the benefit of the International Rugby Board. 
So what changed? Well I think what has really changed is that Dr Sharples has made a threat. I suggest to members opposite that the Maori Party must have said to the Prime Minister that it was ready to do something like walk out of the National-ACT coalition. We cannot see changes of this force of this nature and of this rapidity without those kinds of threats being put in place. I think Dr Sharples had every right to be very angry about what transpired yesterday. He had apologised to the Prime Minister for his oversight in not briefing Cabinet about the approach to Te Puni Kokiri to assist Maori Television in its bid for the Rugby World Cup coverage. It was not a very glamorous spectacle for that approach to have come together without his Cabinet colleagues having been told. There is no excuse for that. But while Dr Sharples was apologising his Cabinet colleagues were secretly putting together a rival bid against Maori Television. What an absolute shambles that was and it was happening under a Government that supposedly makes a virtue of not spending more money than it needs to spend. 
Mind you the Government’s broadcasting policy throughout this year as masterminded by “The Maestro” has been a totally hands-off approach. Let me remind members opposite that just 3 weeks ago TVNZ announced it could no longer fund and run the free-to-air coverage of next year’s Commonwealth Games. It decided to on-pass those rights to Sky television. Where was the outrage? Where was the Prime Minister’s defence of the rights of all New Zealanders—100 percent of New Zealanders—to see the Commonwealth Games coverage? Where were New Zealanders going to tune to on free-to-air television to watch Valerie Vili win gold for New Zealand in New Delhi next year at the Commonwealth Games? There was not a squeak about that from the Prime Minister. The Minister of Broadcasting was totally relaxed about it. In fact he said that the end was now in sight for the free-to-air coverage of major sporting events and he was totally relaxed about that. Not a word was said. Next year New Zealanders in their hundreds and thousands will not be able to see the Commonwealth Games. Hundreds and thousands of New Zealanders will not be able to see the New Zealand competitors wearing the silver fern on their chest. Not a word was said about that by this Government. Not a word was said by “The Maestro” Dr Coleman the Minister of Broadcasting. In fact he is the junior Minister because we all know that the real Minister of Broadcasting is Mr Joyce. 
Then what happened? The Maori Television Service got Te Puni Kokiri funding lined up for the bid for the Rugby World Cup coverage. [ 
Interruption 
] That is right. 
Paul Quinn 
: What do you know that we don’t? 
BRENDON BURNS 
: We know a lot. I endorse the comments made by my colleague Shane Jones in saying I very much doubt whether Dr Coleman will retain the broadcasting portfolio for much longer given his performance on that issue yesterday not to mention the issues he is facing in terms of Melissa Lee and her failure to deliver properly to New Zealand On Air—but we will put that aside. So the Maori Television Service got Te Puni Kokiri’s funding which was admittedly not an ideal policy move and Dr Sharples apologised for not briefing Cabinet about that. Yesterday Dr Coleman despite the attempts of Mr Brownlee to deny the patently obvious publicly stated fact that the Government was prepared to fund Maori Television—