Coddington Deborah: Maori Television Service Bill — In Committee 
Coddington Deborah: Maori Television Service Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:607;Page:5010] 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON (ACT NZ) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of the ACT party to address the title. Let us look at the date on the title—2001. It is now April 2003 and that reflects this Government’s commitment to preserving the Maori language. If we go back through some of the history of the Maori Television Service we can see from  
nga korero o te wa 
 that it goes back to September 1997. It states that a Maori television network was proposed by an Auckland-based tangata whenua television company. It stated that Te Mangai Paho would be replaced by a seven-member Maori broadcasting commission which would set and monitor standards. It would be a Maori-owned limited liability company that would run a national channel. Funding at that stage was to come from a 10 percent cultural tax on radio and television advertising and the Te Mangai Paho share of the broadcasting licence fee. The Minister might like to take a call and tell us what happened to that cultural tax. Thank heavens it never saw the light of day. 
We were looking forward to a Maori television bill being passed in 1997. In October 2000 the same people were still involved—Robert Pouwhare Hone Harawira Joanna Paul—and a number of others: Tainui Stephens Hone Edwards and a trust group under a banner. It said it was now tweaking the proposal to make it ready for the new Minister of Maori Affairs Parekura Horomia. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member should not be talking about the principles of the bill. The debate on the title is a very narrow debate. 
DEBORAH CODDINGTON 
: I am focusing on the date in the title which is 2001 and the time that it has taken to get the bill to this stage. The story comes back to 2000 when the bill was still going to be passed. It is now 2003. 
I move on to the wording of the title. I notice that elsewhere in the bill—and we will debate this later—the Government has proposed the protection of the title and a Maori translation of that title. But I agree with the National member Georgina te Heuheu that it is extraordinary that it took her to table an amendment providing that the title should have a translation. If we look at the current craze for translating every title into Maori we see the Inland Revenue Department is named Te Tari Taake for example. The names of all other Government departments have Maori translations. We even have the Race Relations Commissioner suggesting that private companies should translate their names into Maori. So it is indeed extraordinary that there was no Maori title for this bill. 
But then again maybe that is not extraordinary. Maybe it is a reflection of the true spirit of this Government—that did not bother to provide a translation of the title even though we have had the debacle over the translation in the preamble. By the time that the Government got to the title it could not be bothered to provide a translation of it. That reflects that it is just paying lip-service to its alleged commitment to protecting Maori language and culture. 
If the Government were really true to its principles and if it really believed what it says about protecting the language it would have used the resources that were used to provide the translation in the preamble to provide a translation of the title—not pages further on not buried somewhere in the bill. It would have made the effort to provide a translation of the title in clause 1 if it were really true to its commitment to protecting Maori language and culture.