Rich Katherine: Maori Television Service Bill — In Committee 
Rich Katherine: Maori Television Service Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:607;Page:5065] 
KATHERINE RICH (NZ National) 
: 
 I rise to speak to Part 2 of this bill. Once again I say that for something that was supposed to be a flagship project for this Government the Maori Television Service has been an utter shambles from the very beginning. Almost every step that has been taken towards the provision of the Maori Television Service has faltered. It seems to many members of the public that this group of people just cannot get anything right. We have seen director after director—a virtual game of musical chairs in terms of directorships—move on and off the board with alarming regularity. The service has been an absolute embarrassment. 
Nobody has really explained how the television service will play its part in preserving the language. On the Opposition side of the Chamber we feel it is vital that work is done to preserve the language but we would argue that if we took that $55 million per annum and put it into teachers Maori-language programmes and school programmes in particular the whole country would be much further ahead in terms of learning the language. If members compare the Maori Television Service—which is being based on a Canadian model the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network—with that network they will find that even though Canadian cable broadcasters are forced by legislation to carry that channel under a “must carry” clause in the legislation only about 1 percent of Canadians watch the channel. I would like the Minister to answer this: how can this New Zealand channel play a part in preserving the language if nobody will watch it or if very small numbers of New Zealanders will watch it? Broadcasting into the ether is not enough. There is no way that the language can be preserved if the service is on an obscure part of the Sky remote and nobody watches it. 
I turn to clause 47(3) which states: “The Crown must not incur any liability to the Service or expend any money for the use of the Service under an appropriation by Parliament unless—(a) a final statement of intent has been presented to the House of Representatives by the responsible Ministers; and (b) the responsible Ministers have agreed to the output agreement prepared by the board …”. To the Minister sitting in the chair the Hon Parekura Horomia I say that that clause is a bit late because we on the Opposition side of the Chamber would like to know what has been happening within the Maori Television Service for the last 3 years. Certainly a number of liabilities have been incurred under that Minister’s responsibility when in fact the Maori Television Service has had no legal status in relation to the law at all. 
We have seen a lot of high-profile liabilities being incurred heard a lot of debate about directors’ fees and seen some programming projects that have gone bad. In just the last month we saw that Slightly Upbeat Productions has not paid any of its bills. It has left a lot of people with unpaid bills and those people have incurred a lot of costs when it came to producing programmes. We are about to hear about another one of those issues. A number of programmes that Te Mangai Paho has funded are open to question. I say that that particular clause is quite late because the Maori Television Service has been going out and spending a lot of money signing leases signing programming contracts and signing up staff. 
While we are on the subject of staff I would like to get back to another high-profile staff member. I would like to read from the Maori Television Service’s website. This is the part I did not manage to read the other night. Reading from the website notes I learn that Mr Davy is an accomplished recording and video producer. He is a composer a songwriter and a musician. He has extensive experience in drafting and managing international licensing and royalty agreements. He has authored two books  
The Platinum Formula 
 and  
The Art of Record Producing. 
 Would members believe that neither of those books exists? This bit is very interesting: “His non-conflict directorships include being founder and commissioner of the Asian Hockey Association.” I say to Mrs Wong. 
Pansy Wong 
: Really? 
KATHERINE RICH 
: Yes. Mr Davy is “a member and adviser of the Middle East Round Table for International Relations. He is also a member and adviser of the BC Securities Commission.” Of course the only truthful thing we know about Mr John Davy is the fact that he is Canadian. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: I call Deborah Coddington. 
Rodney Hide 
: I hesitate to say that there is bias. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: The member will stand withdraw and apologise. 
Rodney Hide 
: I withdraw and apologise. I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. What rule was the Chair applying in calling Deborah Coddington before me? 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: Mr Hide you may not remember this but you had a call yesterday on the same part of this bill that we are now debating. 
Rodney Hide 
: Oh that is right. I got it in before I was thrown out of the Chamber. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: Yes. You had a call at 9.36 p.m. last night.