te Heuheu Georgina: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations  and State Enterprises — In Committee 
te Heuheu Georgina: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations  and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Volume:626;Page:21331] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 For the clarification of anybody who might be listening we are here to review Te Mangai Paho which is the funding agency for mainly Maori Television and for the production of Maori programming shown on various broadcasting outlets in New Zealand. 
An update from the Maori Television Service in June 2005 highlighted an issue that I think the Minister needs to turn his attention to. It stated that issues and solutions for Maori Television include continuing to produce high-quality Maori programmes. While conducting its review members of the Maori Affairs Committee had some substantial discussions about just that issue. How do we monitor and come to make some judgments about what high-quality Maori programming is? The Maori Television Service obviously has that on its mind and hopefully Te Mangai Paho does as well. Up to 35 percent of the funding that Te Mangai Paho gets goes directly to the Maori Television Service. The Maori Affairs Committee suggested that emphasis be put on the way that funding contracts to broadcasters are managed and that further attention was required in terms of enhancing and documenting its policies and procedures. 
Of course we all remember that 2 or 3 years ago the Minister more than anybody was being given all that wrong and fatuous advice by his Te Mangai Paho executives. We had that whole debacle in this Chamber in 2001 and 2002. The Minister would stand up in this Chamber and not know what he was talking about basically because he was being supplied with incorrect information. Thanks to a good National Party loyalist Wira Gardiner we now see that Te Mangai Paho at least appears to have turned itself around. We hope that the chairman makes sure that everything is in place before he starts to think of leaving. 
One issue relates to the monitoring of funding provided to third parties. That is where the organisation started to fall off the rails 2 or 3 years ago. That is an issue the select committee thought was important. The Maori Television Service exists as a result of a perceived Government obligation to protect and promote te reo Maori. This Committee needs to know that that objective is being achieved. 
How will it be achieved? It will be achieved by making sure that the Maori Television Service has high-quality monitoring and review processes for the programming that is shown and that it has in place its own financial procedures and documentation in terms of funding. So I hope the Minister will turn his attention to that this year among a whole lot of other things—including of course his own department which sees itself as the great saviour of Maori people. I would suggest that the reverse is true: Maori people will save themselves. They do not need a handout organisation to help them achieve their potential. 
The other thing I want to mention is Maori radio. We saw in the estimates we looked at last week that a new initiative has been sought for an iwi radio upgrade. In a way given that iwi radio has become the mouthpiece of the new Maori Party I suppose the Minister has to be commended for the fact that iwi radio has achieved some funding. But again we ask whether Te Mangai Paho processes are the right means of funding Maori radio—whether its funding processes are robust and whether indeed Te Mangai Paho has made any decision about or done any thinking around whether there are too many iwi radio stations. A little bit of integration of iwi radio stations might see the funding go further. Hopefully these matters are in the Minister’s mind as well.