Rich Katherine: Maori Television Service (Te Aratuku Whakaata Irirangi Maori) Bill — Third Reading 
Rich Katherine: Maori Television Service (Te Aratuku Whakaata Irirangi Maori) Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:608;Page:5350] 
KATHERINE RICH (NZ National) 
: 
 As I rise to speak in the third reading of this bill I think it is worthwhile going over some of its past history and some of the developments in the area of Maori television since this Government has been in office. The House may recall that in February 2000 the then Minister of Broadcasting Marian Hobbs told this House that she would sort out Maori television and make some decisions on it pretty soon. From that point on we saw delay after delay after delay and here we are in 2003 seeing the passage of this legislation through this House tonight. 
The intention behind this piece of legislation is a very good one. The intention of this bill is to assist in the preservation of te reo. That is a very worthy intention but I have to say that the vehicle of a Maori television service is a misguided one. It is unlikely that this channel will do anything to preserve the language. If one thinks it is going to preserve the language one is making an assumption that large numbers of New Zealanders large numbers of Maori will watch the channel enjoy it understand it and use it as a method of improving their knowledge of te reo. But if we look at other ethnic television channels around the world—for example the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network in Canada—we see that even though legislation insists that television companies must carry that channel on their platforms less than 1 percent of the population watches the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network at any one time. 
That is the result when the law requires that a channel be included in the remote control. New Zealanders have a choice. Broadcasters here have a choice. Sky has a choice whether the channel will go up on the Sky platform. We do not know what the answer is as yet. If it does not go up then the chances are that very few New Zealanders will actually be able to get this channel. If they do get the channel very few people will actually choose to watch it. 
Hon Murray McCully 
: They’ll turn it off. 
KATHERINE RICH 
: Many will turn it off. It is interesting to look at the sorts of programmes that have been commissioned to date. One of the things that we have come to expect from the charter is that we will see a higher standard of television on Television New Zealand. Yet if we look at the sorts of programmes that have been commissioned to go on the Maori channel we see they are the sorts of stuff that many New Zealanders do not like on TVNZ. Things like  
DIY Marae 
 will just be a Maori model of some of those home renovation shows that we see on TVNZ every night. According to Mr Ryall another show will be a karaoke show. Once again it is a reality-style television show which is probably not the best sort of television that we imagined could be shown on a new channel. 
If we look at the progress of this channel though we see that there has been delay after delay after delay and that a lot of controversy has swirled around those delays. We saw some pretty dodgy tendering processes. We saw a closed tendering process where only certain people were invited to tender for certain contracts. There has been the whole debacle surrounding the search for a chief executive officer. I do not need to remind members of this House that the two words “John Davy” still make that Minister walking across the House shudder every time they are mentioned. John Davy reminded us how important it is to check the CVs of people who apply for Government positions. The only truthful piece on his CV was that he was a Canadian. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: And his name. 
KATHERINE RICH 
: That is quite correct. In excess of $120000 was spent on searching for a new chief executive. In that process we saw one company go by the wayside—Millennium People a fine company that was totally trashed by members on that side. It was totally decimated as a result of some comments that were made about its business and its interaction with the Maori Television Service. 
In excess of $120000 was spent on trying to find a new chief executive officer and after all that time guess whom the board decided to appoint? It appointed none of the candidates none of the applicants but within 24 hours of the board deciding that none of the last set of applicants was able to be appointed none other than Derek Fox was appointed to take on that chief executive role. After that global search for a chief executive and after all that money had been spent within 24 hours of deciding that none of the candidates was suitable Derek Fox was appointed. 
We also looked at some of the rather questionable decision-making processes when the board was searching around for new premises. It did not look at low-cost areas in Ponsonby or at other areas where there are already television studios paying good rates. It went to none other than the middle of the Viaduct Basin with views of the America’s Cup area to lease potentially one of the swankiest television studios possible. Luckily the board did not go ahead with that. When Wayne Walden came in luckily some common sense was brought into the management of the business and from then on we started to see a few things come into line. 
But is it not odd that millions and millions and millions of dollars are budgeted for this channel and we still do not have an on-air date? There is no way that we would ever find any private sector company or project spending such a large amount of money with no start date in sight. I do not think that is good enough. When the public is spending some $55 million per annum people at least want to know when we can turn on our televisions and see something more than the test pattern. We should be able to see something more than that. 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: So let’s get on with it. 
KATHERINE RICH 
: The member over there says we should get on with it. We all know that the lack of this legislation has not actually held anything up. We have an organisation that has no legal status that has been under the umbrella of Te Puni Kokiri and it has been continuing to spend money like it is going out of fashion. After 3 long years legislation is only just now coming through the House. 
There are big expectations I think within the country—certainly within Maoridom—of what this channel is going to deliver and I am concerned that it is probably not going to deliver on many of the expectations that have built up. I do not think this channel will have any role in preserving the language if people decide to switch it off and not watch it. The challenge for those who are involved is to put programmes on air that people want to watch that encourage people to turn on the television and that hopefully develop among people some interest in learning the language. Without people showing an interest in the language without more people picking up and speaking the language it will die. 
I say that the $55 million could have been spent more effectively in other areas. Can members imagine how many teachers $55 million could have paid for? Can they imagine the difference that $55 million might have made to local kohanga reo—the difference that it might have made to what local language nests do in the community? 
The challenge for those who are involved is to ensure that from here on there are no more scandals. We have seen enough scandals to last the project’s entire lifetime. I am sceptical that the service would be able to have any more scandals without further concerns being raised by this side of the House. But at this late stage we do wish those who are involved in the project well because it would be a travesty if we spent $55 million and the result amounted to zip. As we come to the final part of this third reading we say that we still have severe reservations about the ability of this project to deliver for Maori.