McCully Murray: Maori Television Service (Te Aratuku Whakaata Irirangi Maori) Bill — Third Reading 
McCully Murray: Maori Television Service (Te Aratuku Whakaata Irirangi Maori) Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:608;Page:5356] 
Hon MURRAY McCULLY (NZ National—East Coast Bays) 
: 
 For those who were not listening carefully to that speech from the member for Hamilton East I say it was one of the very few contributions she has ever made in this Chamber and I hope that those who were listening savoured the moment. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Come to the bill. 
Hon MURRAY McCULLY 
: I am entitled to make a brief contribution on that matter. Unlike members opposite who appear to have nothing to say about this bill I do have some things to say because I think it is important legislation. The third reading is the opportunity to refer to the stages that have gone before and to make sure that these matters are put on the parliamentary record. 
First I want to record the fact that the debate on this bill in the House tonight is a complete farce. We are dealing tonight with a bill that asks members of the House to solemnly approve legislation to establish the Maori Television Service to spend millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to appoint a board for the Maori Television Service to appoint a chief executive for the Maori Television Service and to appoint an electoral college for the Maori Television Service. Anybody who has read a newspaper in recent weeks knows that each of those things has already been done. We are debating a bill that asks us to solemnly approve the appointment of a chief executive officer who has already been appointed to debate and approve the appointment of a board that is already in place and to approve the appointment of an electoral college that has been there for months and months. I ask what sort of farce it is when Parliament is solemnly debating legislation of this sort when all those events have already occurred and many millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money have already been committed. The bill asks us to approve a process for the commencement of business for the transmission process and so on. All those matters too have been the subject of considerable action and expenditure and still this Parliament is asked to keep a straight face when debating this matter tonight. 
That is a more straightforward consideration in relation to this bill. There is another element of its genesis that I wish to put on the record tonight. The Minister of Maori Affairs should hang his head in shame. He told us many times in this House and outside it that Mr Derek Fox was going to be appointed to the position of chairman of the Maori Television Service a very part-time role for a total remuneration package of $36000 a year. I remind members opposite that when this Maori Television Service was first being discussed Mr Derek Fox had already announced his intention of establishing a new Maori political party. He had announced his intention of standing against the Minister of Maori Affairs in the Minister’s own seat. So Mr Fox got an invitation to afternoon tea from the Prime Minister. We do not know what happened when the Prime Minister and Mr Fox were sitting in the Prime Minister’s suite but we do know that when he came out he had decided to accept the chairmanship of the Maori Television Service. 
The Minister of Maori Affairs and the Prime Minister said that he could still set up his Maori political party and he was still going to do that. He was still going to run against the Minister of Maori Affairs in his electorate. But I know members know and anybody who has read a newspaper knows that Mr Fox’s Maori political party has not happened and that Mr Fox did not stand as a candidate against the Minister of Maori Affairs. We know that as a matter of public record. 
I say to the Minister of Maori Affairs that that is a disgrace. Mr Fox was bought and he knows it. I want to know how it was that Mr Fox moved from becoming the $36000-a-year very part-time chairman of the Maori Television Service to become the very much more full-time chairman of the Maori Television Service getting $100000 in the first year plus $50000 in expenses. I want to know how that happened and how he then made the transformation to become the $160000-a-year chief executive officer of the Maori Television Service—having been the chairman of the panel that interviewed the other candidates. Suddenly Mr Fox went back to the board and said: “We’re sorry chaps but none of these guys measured up.” Then he withdrew from the room so that the remaining directors could appoint him chief executive officer on a vote of three votes to two with one of those votes being a proxy. I ask members how we are supposed to have any respect for a process like that. Mr Fox who is the sworn political opponent of the Minister of Maori Affairs was able to be bought by the Government and then was appointed chief executive officer on a salary of $160000 a year. 
The State Services Commission’s officials were saying: “No no no. This doesn’t look too flash. We’ve got a little problem here. Mr Fox is being appointed chief executive officer on the same job description as Mr John Davy had.” The Minister of Maori Affairs may not have noticed the distinction but Mr Davy was a Canadian with no skills in Maori language and no understanding of tikanga. Yet the same job description had seen Mr Fox the former chairman appointed to the same job. The State Services Commission pointed that out. Its officials said to the Minister of Maori Affairs that it did not look too flash but the job description could not be changed because Mr Fox had already been appointed. So they asked what the Minister wanted them to do. 
The Minister of Maori Affairs needs to tell us that because every time that question has been raised in the House as this bill has gone through its various stages and as the clauses have gone through the Committee of the whole House the Minister of Maori Affairs has stayed anchored in his seat refusing to answer or give a response to the House on those matters. 
I say that this third reading is an opportunity for us to record that this has been a disgraceful process to validate actions of the Government that have already been determined to validate expenditure of Government money that has already been spent and to validate actions of that Minister who has no answers to offer members in response to the very reasonable and sensible questions they have asked as this bill has gone through its various stages. 
I say to the Minister of Maori Affairs that my colleagues and I will be vigilant. We know that this Maori Television Service will be a millstone around his neck around the neck of the Minister of Finance—who made one of the more shameful contributions to this debate—and around the neck of every member of this Government. I say that we will vote against this bill tonight and those members supporting the bill should remember that today they are making a commitment that will see them in due course held up to public ridicule. I make a commitment that I and my colleagues will be here to hold them to account.