Coddington Deborah: Maori Television Service Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Speaker Recalled 
Coddington Deborah: Maori Television Service Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Speaker Recalled 
[Volume:607;Page:4997] 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON (ACT NZ) 
: 
 It is very interesting that when the Minister of Maori Affairs stood to take a call he started off by saying: “Can I say this quite clearly …”. I admire the restraint of members that they did not all fall about laughing because only the Minister can answer that question. Have we ever heard that Minister say anything quite clearly? I was waiting for a first time. He was going to say quite clearly the difference between why we have a translation— 
Jill Pettis 
: I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. I have been giving the member on her feet some space to get to the preamble. At no time at all has she referred to anything contained in the preamble. The debate is becoming very wide. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: Would the member please speak to the preamble and keep to the point. 
Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. We have a problem. The Minister stood took a call and spoke for three-quarters of his speech—I timed it—about what the National Party had not done for 40 years. Nowhere was that in the preamble but the Chair did not comment. Deborah Coddington was two sentences into her speech talking about the Minister and this Chair shut her down. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: The member will continue. 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: Speaking to the preamble and to what the Minister said about the preamble the Minister told us that when he was talking to the preamble he would tell us quite clearly why we have and must trust this Maori translation I ask whether he quoted interpreted or translated. There are three different meanings we can take from that. Rodney Hide made a very good point when he spoke to the preamble and said that if litigation arises—and it surely will arise because this has been set up to invite litigation—it should be interpreted by the courts later on. 
We see in the “Translation of the preamble” in the commentary that the Maori version has indeed changed and the English version has not changed. I would have thought that if those members of the Government were committed to te reo—as they say they are—and to Maori television they would get up and explain why the Maori version has been changed. I think we are entitled to know why it has been changed. There would be an outcry if the English version had changed. Furthermore if Government members were totally committed to te reo they including Jill Pettis would get up and talk in Maori. So why do they not do that? 
Rodney Hide 
: They won’t even talk in English. 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: That is another good point. Katherine Rich made a good point when she spoke about the difference between a translation and an interpretation. We do not know what this preamble is; is it a translation or is it an interpretation? We do not know because we are told in the commentary that the English version and the Maori version were meant to be set out side by side. The commentary then states: “However it is not technically possible to achieve this within our timeframe for reporting back on the bill.” 
The Government has delayed for 2 years. We will get to the title soon but the date in the title clause is 2001. It is now 2003. 
Rodney Hide 
: It must be slow. 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: It is slow but not slow enough to have it set out so we know what we are voting for in this preamble—[ 
Interruption 
] The Minister over there can take a call in Maori if he has got something to say instead of just chipping in every now and then. 
Rodney Hide 
: It was Mark Burton. 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: I am sorry I had forgotten his name; I thank Mr Hide. 
I come back to this difference in the translation. Here we are 163 years later still debating the Treaty of Waitangi—whether it is the English version or the Maori version or whether it is a translation or an interpretation. The least we can expect in this Committee stage is for the translator to translate this preamble for us word by word so that we see that it is a translation and not an interpretation. Quite frankly when the commentary refers to different versions that came to and fro from Te Puni Kokiri and Te Putahi Paoho we do not know what we have here. 
The fourth clause of the preamble says that the establishment of the Maori Television Service means that Maori language and Maori culture will have “a secure place”. Nothing that has been done so far by this Government leads us to believe that there is anything secure about Maori television in the way it has been set up. What is secure about a television service that was meant to be on air by the middle of last year? I believe that we still do not have a to-air date. Perhaps the Minister of Maori Affairs might like to take a call and tell us what the to-air date is. The last I heard was that it would be July but I doubt that we will see it going to air by July.