Gudgeon Bill: Maori Television Service Bill — In Committee 
Gudgeon Bill: Maori Television Service Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:607;Page:5017] 
BILL GUDGEON (NZ First) 
: 
 Part 1 mentions the commencement. The question is when? What are the delays and why? Is it funding or the lack of it? Who is responsible? Is it management? The taxpayers are asking questions. When will the bill receive the royal assent? Those are the questions that are out there and amongst us in this Committee. Why where and what? How? Who is responsible? Millions of dollars are being invested in this programme but nothing has happened yet. 
Part 1 sets out the purpose. It describes the purpose as recognition that the Crown and Maori together have an obligation under the Treaty of Waitangi to preserve protect and promote te reo. The purpose of this Act is to provide for the establishment and functions to protect te reo Maori. That is what the purpose should be about. It is all about how what where and why. What will the outcomes be? Will it just be another form of entertainment? As I said before would it not be interesting to conduct a survey to see how much of the language will be learnt through this form of media? When this programme gets going will there be facilitators who will help assist those learners of the language when they view those programmes? That is the real crux and challenge of that programme. The Government says that it will hold fast to the Treaty of Waitangi obligations of the Crown and it says it will protect the language so that people will learn their tikanga and those things that are dear to them in the language especially. Yet where is the provision for assistance when that programme gets going? For example what if my people say: “I don’t understand what’s being said on that programme. How am I supposed to learn when there is nobody there to facilitate?”. How are they to say to us that the vowel sounds are not right—that it is not “a e i o u.” but “ah eh ee o oo” in order to be precise on the pronunciation of the language? That is the challenge. If $55 million is to be spent on this programme each year it had better have very very positive results otherwise people will be saying: “Plastic Maori waste of time waste of money.” 
My challenge to the Government and to the Minister is to have those programmes in place so that the purpose—which I hope is the Government’s idea of promoting and learning about the language—will be fulfilled. If they are not where does it stand as a party? That is what it is all about. If the money is being provided produce the goods. Let us see the outcome. Let us hear the outcome. I am expecting a big rise in the percentage of people who will be able to speak Maori. I will not be satisfied until that proof is before us and we hear it. That is the challenge. Where is the purpose? What is that purpose? Is it enough to say that the Crown has fulfilled its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi by providing a television channel for Maori to be heard? What about the language being learnt? That is what it is all about. Otherwise the taxpayers will want to get rid of it. We have a say in this country about what happens to that money and how it is being spent.