Faafoi Kris: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFaafoi Kris: General Debate[Sitting date: 19 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16811. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana):It is a sad indictment on the National Party when it is not only its current Ministers who are arrogant and have conflicts of interest but also its previous Ministers. I am speaking about Georgina te Heuheu and what is going on at the Māori Television Service. What is going on at the Māori Television Service when the shareholding Ministers Bill English and Pita Sharples are finding out from media reports about what is going on with the appointment process with their chief executive?David Shearer: It’s a shocker.KRIS FAAFOI: It is an absolute shocker. The process has been started again beset with leaks and conflicts of interest. I want to talk about the position first and not the person because this is a very important position. The Māori Television Service has a taxpayer budget of well over $30 million. It has two channels and it has a duty to preserve protect and promote the language and Māori culture here in New Zealand. It is an extremely important role in the broadcasting and Māori community and the Māori Television Service board has a responsibility to choose the right person for cultural reasons for broadcasting reasons and for political financial management and integrity reasons.As I say this appointment has been an absolute shambles since it began in June last year. There had been leaks and people who were applicants for this job found out through the media that they were no longer being considered for the job. There has been a conflict of interest with the chair of the board of the Māori Television Service Georgina te Heuheu with her close friend Paora Maxwell being in the running for this job and because of that the process had to start again late last year.The conflict of interest with the former National Party Minister Georgina te Heuheu relates to Paora Maxwell her very close friend who we understand in the first iteration of the appointment process got his application in late. Although the recruitment company that received the application late said it should not consider that application Mr Maxwell made the shortlist and we have to ask why. The very close friend of Georgina te Heuheu made the shortlist and we have to ask why that happened with a very close friend of the board chair.Much has been said of Paora Maxwell and he actually took the rare step of looking for some redress for some comments that were made in this House. But much has also not been said about Mr Maxwell. We know from his comments that he left Television New Zealand (TVNZ) in February 2013 and reports suggest that he left under a confidential agreement. We still do not know the details of that confidential agreement and despite attempts directed at TVNZ we have not got the detail and I do not think that we will ever get the detail.I have two quite simple questions for the chief executive of TVNZ: seeing that Mr Maxwell has gone and given his track record of employment at TVNZ does he trust Paora Maxwell and would he re-employ Mr Maxwell if he went for a job back at TVNZ again? If the answer to those questions is no then I have serious reservations as to whether Mr Maxwell should be appointed to the senior job of chief executive at the Māori Television Service. I believe that TVNZ does have an obligation to the wider broadcasting industry to make sure that there is someone with integrity at the head of the Māori Television Service and the board of the Māori Television Service has obligations to seek all information to make sure it gets the right person.Why has Mr Maxwell been pushed for this job? Well I think the simple answer is on the front page of the Dominion Post. It is because he has been chosen by his friend to go in and take the stick to the news and current affairs department at Māori Television because this Government does not like scrutiny. When the hard questions get asked members of this Government do not want anyone looking for them because they do not want to answer. There were no answers yesterday when Hekia Parata fronted up over the allegations of corruption at Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust. There were no answers there but Māori Television has been doing a very good job according to Gavin Ellis the former New Zealand Herald editor of making sure the hard questions get asked.The question of why this is happening has a simple answer which is that this Government does not want Māori Television and its journalists asking those hard questions any more. Well if it does not like it do not enter into those situations where you are having Trelise Cooper dresses bought and where you are having 21st birthday presents bought. If you do not like the hard questions that does not mean you bring someone in to take the stick to Māori Television.