Harawira Hone: Broadcasting Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Harawira Hone: Broadcasting Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:641;Page:11672] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe Madam Assistant Speaker. Tena tatou katoa te Whare. The Broadcasting Amendment Bill gives the House a good chance a good opportunity to look back on some of the first principles of broadcasting in Aotearoa. When I talk about principles I am talking about those Treaty principles that both New Zealand First and Labour with their large bands of Tontos voted to dump from legislation but that Maori up and down the country hold fast to as the only validation of the Treaty in legislation in this country. 
This bill arises out of the broadcasting assets case  
New Zealand Maori Council v 
Attorney-General 
 of December 1993 where the Privy Council noted in its decision that “The Treaty records an agreement executed by the Crown and Maori which over 150 years later is of the greatest constitutional importance to New Zealand.” It is such an important point that it is worth repeating: “The Treaty records an agreement executed by the Crown and Maori which over 150 years later is of the greatest constitutional importance to New Zealand.” The Privy Council decision also stated: “Foremost among those ‘principles’ are the obligations which the Crown undertook of protecting and preserving Maori property including the Maori language as taonga in return for being recognised as the legitimate government of the whole nation by Maori.” It further stated: “Again if as is the case with the Maori language at the present time a taonga is in a vulnerable state this has to be taken into account by the Crown … and may well require the Crown to take especially vigorous action for its protection.” 
That is the basis from which we need to consider this bill. Does the bill include the vigorous action by which Maori language and culture will be promoted and protected? Does it bear in mind the constitutional importance of the Treaty? Does it deal properly with the obligations of the Crown to protect and preserve Maori property? It is with those guidelines in mind that the Maori Party will support the proposal to amend the Broadcasting Act 1989 to enable New Zealand On Air and Te Mangai Paho to fund digital broadcasting content archiving and transmission. 
But we still ask the question: “Does it stack up against those criteria established by the Privy Council?”. Well the Minister of Maori Affairs thought so when he said on 26 July 2007 that: “Without a dedicated Maori digital television service there is the potential for a diminished presence of Maori language and culture in the lives of all New Zealanders” and gave the assurance particularly in relation to Maori television that “there will be no decrease in the amount of Maori language programming on the first channel”. The Minister’s words are important because the debate over Television New Zealand (TVNZ)’s Maori programming strategy suggests that some clear direction about Maori language programming across all channels is needed. 
The Maori Party supports the current framework for purchasing programmes and broadcast services through New Zealand On Air and Te Mangai Paho. Both agencies continue to have a focus on Maori programmes and services and archiving of those programmes is a positive step. But we also firmly believe that Maori must have a greater say about the way that resources are allocated for the promotion of Maori language and culture through broadcasting. The TVNZ Maori programme tragedy is a classic example of the need for that. When it was first announced the increase in Maori programming hours sounded great but when one looked at the scheduling one quickly realised what a sham it really was. 
For example if we take  
Te Karere 
 TVNZ’s Maori news flagship we find it has never ever been treated by TVNZ as a news programme and its timing has always reflected that. For years it played second fiddle to sport getting shunted back to midnight whenever cricket was on. Then when cricket shifted to Sky  
Te Karere 
 got left out in the boonies—out in the kids’ programming slot at 4.30 p.m. and replayed at 6.05 a.m. on the following day. Now with TVNZ’s new Maori programming tragedy being announced in a blaze of publicity we find that  
Te Karere 
 is—wait for it; drum roll and all the rest of it—being dumped into an even worse slot. It is going to be out with the soaps at 3.45 in the afternoon and replayed at midnight and 5.45 a.m. for heaven’s sake! Then we find that  
Waka Huia 
 and  
Marae 
 TVNZ’s major Maori documentary and current affairs programmes have just been slashed in half and that  
Waka Huia 
 has just been shunted back into Sunday morning after slowly building a solid audience in its Saturday morning slot. That is just another insult to Maori programming. I challenge the Minister of Maori Affairs to take steps to ensure that Maori language programming is not downgraded by people whose ignorance of Maori programming is already clear for all to see. 
The Sunday morning shuffle that TVNZ is engaged in with regard to  
Waka Huia 
 reminded me of a similar dance from a few years back so I had a look through the records and can members guess what I found? I found a  
Listener 
 article that described the time when  
Waka Huia 
 was pushed back from 11 a.m. on Sunday to 10 a.m. to make way for the life-changing New Zealand society - building revolutionary children’s programme  
Little House on the Prairie 
. It reported a comment from Hone Kaa a former presenter and co-producer of  
Waka Huia 
 who said at the time: “There are powers which determine when you might be seen … I think it’s about time those people started to realise that we are the indigenous tangata whenua and that maybe we ought to have priority over some of the American shit that we’re watching.” The date of that article was 28 March 1987—20 years ago—but it could have been written yesterday for all the progress that has not been made on Maori programming at Television New Zealand. 
The point is that this bill looks good and we support moves for video on demand interactivity reversioning and so on but it all means diddly-squat if the State broadcaster is using that process to relegate Maori programming to the twilight hours. That brings me back to the point of giving Maori a more direct stake in the growth of Maori language and culture through broadcasting. The Maori Television Service is an enormous achievement but the Government must continue to support the development of management and technical skills and experience within the industry and as well allow the service to grow its commitment to Maori language and culture. It is great that in its short life the Maori Television Service has taken prizes for best event coverage at the 2006 Qantas television awards awards for best documentaries people’s choice awards and other awards but we must not blind ourselves to the reality that TVNZ was fully absolutely and totally State-funded for 40 years whereas the Maori Television Service has only ever been part-funded for 5 years. Maori radio has not received an operational increase in its funding in almost 20 years. The Government needs to accept a great obligation to Maori broadcasting to ensure continuous and ongoing improvement in both radio and television. 
I also want to refer to the amendments in the bill to change Te Mangai Paho’s primary function by adding the archiving of Maori language and culture programmes to its role. I am reminded of a story from another trailblazing Maori broadcaster Ernie Leonard who said that while watching the elders walking up the steps of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art during the Te Maori exhibition the hairs rose on the back of his neck as he thought about what would happen if the plane carrying those people home crashed and they were all lost. Preserving and protecting our stories is absolutely vital to our future as a people and as a nation and is a development that we support fully. 
I leave us with one final comment. The Maori Party is gravely concerned that Maori language programme funding is already very tight in spite of the ruling of the Privy Council in spite of the statutory direction of the Broadcasting Act and in spite of the huge surpluses that TVNZ has run up. I have to ask the obvious questions. First what strategy does the Government have to provide annual increases in Maori broadcasting funding to support the development of management and technical skills and experience within the industry as well as allowing the Maori Television Service to grow its commitment to Maori language and culture? Second what funding increases have been determined to enable Maori radio and television to benefit properly from digital broadcast development? Third is Maori broadcasting expected to take on video on demand interactivity reversioning and digital broadcast content archiving and transmission without the funding to do so? Or will Maori broadcasting be expected to cut back even further to enable its funding to be used for mainstream digital broadcast development? Budget 2007 gave some money to Maori radio and the Maori Television Service but it falls well short of what is required to properly develop those services and their products and we hope to use the select committee process to raise those constitutional legal and financial issues to ensure that Maori broadcasting is not neutralised in this new digital era. Tena koe Madam Assistant Speaker tena tatou katoa.