Coddington Deborah: Maori Television Service Bill — In Committee 
Coddington Deborah: Maori Television Service Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:607;Page:5022] 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON (ACT NZ) 
: 
 There is some really worrying wording in Part 1 of this bill. If we look under the heading “Key provisions about Maori Television Service” at clause 8(1) we see that: “The principal function of the Service is to promote te reo Maori me nga tikanga Maori”. If one goes to the interpretation one sees that “nga tikanga Maori for the purposes of this Act means Maori custom practice and law”—not just “custom” but “practice and law”. Then if one goes to clause 9 “Powers of Service” one sees that “For the purpose of performing its functions under this Act the Service—(a) has full capacity to carry out or undertake any business or activity do any act or enter into any transaction;” and so on. 
The principal function of this service is to promote Maori custom practice and law. That makes this legislation really political because nowhere in the Privy Council ruling did it say that the Crown was required to promote Maori law. What is Maori law? Under this sort of legislation Television New Zealand could be required to promote English law—and I would actually like Television New Zealand to be required to promote the English law that I favour. How come we have allowed it to slip through in this legislation that we will use taxpayer-funded public broadcasting to promote what this bill defines under nga tikanga Maori? Until now I understood that te reo Maori was the language and tikanga Maori was custom but for the purposes of this bill nga tikanga Maori is taken to mean not just custom but practice and law. There is considerable Maori practice in law that would be abhorrent to most New Zealanders—and I refer to historic and not current practices— 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: What’s that? 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: Eating people and capturing and enslaving people. I am not saying that they are contemporary practices but there are things that people would find abhorrent so why are we allowing taxpayers’ money to fund the promotion of Maori law? 
Furthermore will this bill override the powers of the censor who would find some Maori law or customary practice objectionable to the public? I am not saying that the Maori Television Service will promote that but this legislation enables Maori television to promote Maori law. I think that is highly questionable. 
I invite the Minister to take a call and—to use the same words he used earlier tonight—to say quite clearly what is meant by that and to reassure this Committee and the people of New Zealand as to what the principal function of this service will mean. Under Part 1 it seems to me that the powers of service of the Maori Television Service are very wide indeed. They are boundless and could encompass anything that Te Putahi Paoho deems fit. Te Putahi Paoho is another bottomless pit for taxpayers’ money which will be funded out of the consolidated account and not out of the appropriation for the Maori Television Service. The setting up of that comes in under Part 1 too. Perhaps the Minister could explain to us what the exact role of Te Putahi Paoho is.