Rich Katherine: Maori Television Service Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Speaker Recalled 
Rich Katherine: Maori Television Service Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Speaker Recalled 
[Volume:607;Page:4990] 
KATHERINE RICH (NZ National) 
: 
 I would like to share with the Committee a pretty major concern I have about the preamble to the bill. This is the first time that I have seen two separate sections in the preamble of a bill one in Maori and one in English. What concerns me as a member whose party is considering whether to vote for this part is that many of us here in the Chamber today do not have any idea what the first part of the preamble means because it is in Maori. Although I have done a few lessons here at Parliament to get myself a bit up to speed in te reo I do not know the language sufficiently well to be able to judge what we will actually be voting for or against. 
One would hope that the English version of the preamble was an exact reflection of the Maori version but if Government members had actually read the commentary on the bill they would know that one of the debates in the Maori Affairs Committee was about the translation of the preamble. I refer members on the Government side of the Chamber who obviously have not read the committee’s report on the bill to the fact that it states: “The preamble is in English followed by a Maori translation. Cabinet had previously decided there would be a Maori translation of the English preamble to be prepared to the satisfaction of the Minister of Maori Affairs and the Chair of Te Putahi Paoho.”—there goes the limitation of my Maori pronunciation. The committee goes on to state: “Te Putahi Paoho is concerned that despite this agreement the translation that appears in the bill is an altered version of the translation it originally submitted to Te Puni Kokiri. It requests that the preamble revert to the version originally provided and also that it be presented in adjacent columns with Maori to the left and English to the right.” 
It further concerns me that the select committee also states there are concerns about the inaccuracy of the translation and that macrons have been used in an inconsistent manner. I ask how those members who are not fluent in te reo are supposed to have any confidence that what we are considering voting for or against is a correct reflection a correct translation of the English preamble. Unless the Minister wants to stand up and take a call and give the Committee a translation we will be none the wiser about what we are voting for. 
Hon Member 
: The interpreter might explain. 
KATHERINE RICH 
: The interpreter could assist us and I would also seek the advice of the Clerk at the Table because I do not think I have ever faced a situation of this nature in my short time in Parliament and I do not think other members have done so either. I seek guidance from some of the more senior members of the Opposition. Certainly this would be one of the first cases I have seen where we are to vote on something that we do not have any understanding of in terms of its definition. 
Of course the “Background in English” in the preamble which we are able to follow highlights some of the background that has led us to debate this bill in the House. One of the things about the Privy Council’s decision which was that there was a Government obligation to assist in the preservation of te reo Maori by the use of both radio and television broadcasting was that it did not suggest there needed to be a totally separate television service. It just said there needed to be an understanding that when the Government funded radio and television justice had to be paid to the language. That has been done to a great extent through the work of New Zealand On Air and through the establishment of Te Mangai Paho. Both those organisations have funded a huge amount of Maori content over the last few years—not just in television programming but also in terms of radio stations radio programming etc. There has been a huge amount of State investment into the area of Maori programming which is played in prime time on channels that most New Zealanders are likely to watch. 
What bothers me about this separate service is that it is likely to be on an obscure part of the Sky digital remote and thus inaccessible to many New Zealanders.