Curran Clare: Māori Television Service (Te Aratuku Whakaata Irirangi Māori) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCurran Clare: Māori Television Service (Te Aratuku Whakaata Irirangi Māori) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 19 November 2013. Volume:695;Page:14945. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South): Such a quiet voice Mr Chair. First of all I would like to say thank you very much to the Minister of Māori Affairs for getting up and taking a call and clarifying his position on some of these issues that have been raised this evening in the debate on this bill the Māori Television Service (Te Aratuku Whakaata Irirangi Māori) Amendment Bill. I take in good faith what the Minister has said on all of the issues that he has spoken about and I appreciate and acknowledge what he had to say. I think that given the number of issues that have been raised the importance of some of these issues and the context in which they have been raised that is something that this Committee and this side of the Chamber must acknowledge.Obviously we on the Labour bench still have concerns and I will go straight to the appointment process for the chief executive and the request for a report which I think is a sensible thing to do. But the problem remains that the report that will be received will be after the fact and going back in time going back in history to the early part of Māori Television’s history when there were appointments made and regrets made around those appointments as they did not turn out the way they could and should have. Those lessons should not be repeated and in any process that is undertaken I would hope—and I know that the Minister is certainly listening tonight—that it would not be a situation that what we would end up with had to be fixed up afterwards rather than be dealt with beforehand. I think that has been at the essence of the concern from the Labour side right from the very beginning.As my colleague Kris Faafoi said in his second reading speech the Opposition’s role in asking the questions and raising the issues is a vital role in our democracy. Most times it is an essential role and it can be raising issues that can be dealt with before they become bigger issues. I certainly think that the Minister is listening to that and we are certainly very interested in the information that is supplied during the report.With regard to the comments the Minister has made around the electoral college and its role at the governance level I certainly think that all of my colleagues who have spoken in the debate tonight have acknowledged the importance of that role and also the history of that role. The problems are—I hesitate to say “operational”—around the composition the fact that that governance body ended up being questioned in terms of its ability to govern and what the status was of all of the individual bodies that made it up. It was so serious—and the Minister would certainly know this—that it was mentioned and a great deal of attention was given to it during the discussion on the bill in the Māori Affairs Committee and it was also in the committee’s report back to the House. That seemed to me to be quite an unusual situation. A live issue that had not been dealt with was drawn to Parliament’s attention as something that still had yet to be dealt with in order for this bill to turn into legislation that was workable.I also would like to mention—and this is something that has not been mentioned in the debate today—that one of the core amendments to this legislation was to try to find a way through if there was going to be debate around the management of the spectrum. This was certainly supported by the Labour members and I say thank you to the officials for inserting it. It amends clause 10 of the bill to insert a new section 24DA into the Act allowing the appointment of a mediator if the responsible Ministers and Te Pūtahi Pāoho could not resolve any disagreement about the administration of spectrum management rights that would require their joint determination. What that means is that there is an acknowledgment that there could be disagreements and that there could be the need for some resolution of them. How that mediation would work I think is still up in the air. I think it is of concern that it would even have to be anticipated but I certainly think that it was a sensible amendment to the bill because it provides a way forward if there is the need.What it presupposed was that the management of the spectrum—and this is the essence of Labour’s argument tonight—is a concern and there is still a question mark around what its future use will be. Given that we are moving into the digital environment given that there will be more spectrum available and given that not all of that spectrum is allocated to Māori Television the big question remains as to what its future use is going to be and what the Government’s position on that is. What is the Crown’s position?This is Parliament. This is where we get to discuss these things. If the Minister is not able to take another call or is not of a mind to take another call in the Committee stage I certainly hope that in his third reading speech he will go to that point and tell the House where the Government’s thinking is and where the Crown’s thinking is on that matter. In terms of the Māori Television Service’s future and the next 10 years of its existence I think this Committee needs to be assured that in the Government’s mind it is a future that is about expansion and the golden age as has been referred to by another member in this Chamber. I think this Committee needs to be assured that there will be a golden age for Māori Television and that that is very much at the forefront of the Government’s mind.