Alexander Marc: Maori Television Service (Te Aratuku Whakaata Irirangi Maori) Bill — Third Reading 
Alexander Marc: Maori Television Service (Te Aratuku Whakaata Irirangi Maori) Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:608;Page:5282] 
MARC ALEXANDER (United Future) 
: 
 It is a sad reflection of today’s climate that informed public debate is often cloaked under the skirt of an ideological mistress trussed up by political correctness and giving birth to dim-witted legislation. The problem is we all end up paying for it at the expense of legitimate issues that could use the resources to better effect. Maori television is but one recent example. 
In 1993 the Privy Council told the Crown that it had a duty actively to protect Maoritanga which includes language and culture. I have no problem with that. As a nation not only do we have an obligation but also an ethical requirement to protect our cultural heritage both for its own sake and for future generations. We have an implicit responsibility and duty to safeguard and nurture the wider interests of Maori as an integral part of this unique cultural heritage that is New Zealand. But these interests can never be absolute. No good can ever come from trying to rewrite history by token gestures that unfairly penalise one segment of our population in favour of another. 
This ideological tactic driven by well-meaning but deluded apologists will always result in added social tensions and will inevitably undermine the very point they are trying to make. Late at night after a couple of glasses of Chardonnay in an office in Parliament Maori television probably sounded like a great idea and a possible vote-catcher. The public has never demanded it. From the broadcast point of view a stand-alone Maori television station makes not one iota of sense. Aotearoa Television Network was a prior attempt and it failed. It failed miserably and suffered an ignominious demise in 1997. Unfortunately some bad ideas do not rest in their graves quietly and like a phoenix on a bad hair day the blueprint for Maori television Mark 2 was resurrected in 2001. This is the kind of thing that happens when a flock of ideologically driven non-Maoris think they have the answers to a problem of their own creation. 
Where in the Privy Council ruling was there a broadcasting directive? If we really want to protect Maori language and culture we would empower Maori to make their own decisions so that if there were legitimate needs for Maori television it could be funded by Maori accountable to Maori shareholders with the same economic rules of the game as for every other player. The whole process could be driven and supported by Maori at large. There should not be any doubts about that. 
The problem is that Maori television has succumbed to business practice error No. 1 and that is identifying a need that is not there. The second mistake is to fund a venture by the deep pockets of the taxpayer so there are no market incentives to succeed. How else can anyone explain the tsunami of practical blunders which has earned its architects and advocates an industry raspberry and a black mark on their respective résumés. That approach would surely have sent any other enterprise into the realms of oblivion. The Canadian chief executive officer who was initially appointed through a woefully inadequate vetting procedure was discovered to have falsified his CV and ended up bankrupt and in prison. He has since turned up in Afghanistan of all places pursuing some other employment possibility. Learning nothing from that folly Derek Fox who was one of those engaged in the interviewing process for a new chief executive officer suddenly switched chairs and assumed the position himself. Apart from all the accountability and transparency issues could we really not find one person who is experienced and competent and who wanted the job before looking inward? Is there not a red flag in all of that? 
To cap that two people from a key supplier to the enterprise were at the centre of a scandal at Aotearoa Television Network involving the spending of around $8000 each on clothes travel and five-star hotels. One of those people was later given an additional $1.6 million to make yet another documentary series— 
Hawaiki 
 for the Maori Television Service and even more for another series  
Rongoa 
. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: They’ll get on to the estimates. 
MARC ALEXANDER 
: That is exactly right. So it goes on. The latest audit on accounting practices at Aroha Films has thrown up even more questions. Two production companies allocated as much as $700000 have collapsed leaving bad debts; signatures obtained in advance for cheque payments; original invoices made out to outside parties; photocopy printing and stationery costs nearly three times that budgeted; and $270 for—of all things—speeding fines disguised as “equipment rental”. Aroha Films has paid $152000 in consultancy fees has been billed for home renovations has $24000 of payments to employees in dispute and paid out a whopping sum of $94835 in petty cash in the 5 months between April and August. 
 National got it wrong the first time. Even with the benefit of that experience we now have a Labour Government hell-bent on following the example of lemmings with Maori television. Experience has seemingly taught Government absolutely nothing. Rather than treading warily the Minister of Broadcasting Steve Maharey says that the Maori Television Service will be “one of the most exciting public broadcasting projects ever attempted”. Yet the Minister claims there will be only a niche market for it. If that is the case why not let the niche market pay for it? Why should others have to pay for what they do not want will not be a part of nor will benefit from? We could underwrite struggling regional television and require the inclusion of targeted Maori programming if that is what we really need to do. At the very least we would not be wasting our money on infrastructure but would create new employment possibilities and a talent pool for the future for the major networks. Taxpayers have other more important priorities. If we really want to do something positive for the social cultural and economic development of Maori we could put resources into early interventions and stem the appalling rise in crime health and unemployment statistics. Only those divorced from any sense of reality and fiscal responsibility could possibly support this bill and it is a bill—one paid for by the unwitting taxpayer. 
Let me now highlight some of our major concerns. Just because the Crown has an obligation to protect Maori taonga and te reo that does not infer any sort of a broadcasting directive let alone the establishment of a television channel. The Privy Council ruling was not that specific. If we were serious about protecting Maori language and culture we would empower Maori to do it themselves. The function of the service is supposed to have been to provide te reo through a high-quality and cost-effective service. This will never happen because there are no real market incentives for it to operate in such a fashion. A clause in legislation telling it to operate efficiently will not simply cause it to do so unless there are real incentives—incentives that can come only from private enterprise. We all know the inevitable outcome: a tax dollar black hole. The service is supposed to remain independent of ministerial interference from programming. Would it really air anything likely to offend a politically favourable Government lest it lose the taxpayer dollars that it feeds off? 
Let us look at competence issues. Its first chief executive officer John Davy with a fraudulent CV is now in Afghanistan. The appointment process for the next chief executive officer is doubtful. The new chief executive officer already had a falling out with a Government over the transmission platform. Stated initially what he wanted was resources of $100 million to start up. How does he think he will be able to do a job with one-third of that? Key programming supplier Aotearoa Television is hardly a shining example of cost-effectiveness. Aroha Films came out of an audit looking foolish has been billed for someone else’s home renovations and managed to spend $94000 on petty cash in 5 months. The transmission platform chosen for the service was one of the worst possible choices made. Not only was it bitterly opposed by the service itself—which wanted CanWest’s TV4—but it is now confined to transmitting on an outdated UHF frequency that is available to about 22 percent of the present potential viewer audience. As a final kick in the teeth those who are actually interested in watching the service but who cannot receive it will have to fork out an additional $200 to have a suitable aerial installed. 
This bill is the single worst example perpetrated by non-Maori apologists and is nothing more than taxpayer-funded tokenism. It is in fact a slap in the face for Maori paid for by the slapped faces of the taxpayer.