Harawira Hone: Privilege — Television New Zealand—Former Chief Executive Consideration of Interim Report of Privileges Committee 
Harawira Hone: Privilege — Television New Zealand—Former Chief Executive Consideration of Interim Report of Privileges Committee 
[Volume:630;Page:2582] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 I rise to speak to this issue today as a member of the Privileges Committee and also as the Maori Party spokesperson on broadcasting. The concept of privilege is an interesting one for the Maori Party. In fact it is an interesting one for the whole House to consider given the advice and the report of the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people and the issue of special privilege. I intend to return to that often during my speech today. The special rapporteur said that the idea that Maori have received undue privilege from Treaty settlements—an idea freely floated in the media and by some politicians—lacks any substance whatsoever. 
Mr Ian Fraser’s actions his subsequent reprimand and the disciplinary action of the board have been widely reported and debated in the media at the Finance and Expenditure Committee and at the Privileges Committee. I do not plan to go into the detail of who said what to whom but I do wish to speak to the idea that parliamentary privilege should protect those who have been called to appear before select committees. The Maori Party values independence integrity and the freedom to contribute to debate. The report from the Privileges Committee refers to the fundamental importance of protecting witnesses. It refers to participation without fear of intimidation or disadvantage and it also questions whether the actions of Television New Zealand have amounted to “assaulting threatening or disadvantaging” Mr Fraser. Those are strong words but they are not words we have not heard in the Maori community before and they are not unlike words used by my colleague Mr Te Ururoa Flavell who mentioned the following comment made by Ngati Wai elder Hori Te Moanaroa Parata in relation to Crown consultation: “DOC and the Minister think they have been consulting with us. What they have been doing is insulting and almost assaulting us.” So the Maori Party is very aware of assaulting and threatening behaviour. 
I remind the House again of the report of the special rapporteur who referred to the coercive relationships between the Crown and Treaty claimants. Threats coercion and insults were what Mr Fraser was subjected to following his appearance before the select committee. Further actions were taken which the Privileges Committee said amounted to contempt. I now learn that the fine imposed is the first fine to be handed down by the Privileges Committee in 103 years but I wonder whether a $1000 fine is not just like a slap with a wet bus ticket. I want to return to that notion of privilege because I know what a $1000 fine means to one of my whanau who on the car-koi down to Parliament got fined 1000 bucks for supposedly “driving in a manner likely to annoy other people”—not actually annoying anyone but likely to annoy. I note that in the case of Television New Zealand (TVNZ) the broadcaster was not hauled up before the Privileges Committee because it was likely to be in contempt; it was called to account because it was in contempt. 
It seems that there is a dual standard of justice in this country as quite properly noted by the United Nations special rapporteur. I again remind this House that in a very insightful intelligent and factually accurate analysis of the state of Maori and its relationship to the Crown the special rapporteur itemised the particular concerns he found with the media portrayal of Maori. They include portraying Maori unfairly as having benefits denied to others referring incorrectly to the level of control Maori have over significant resources portraying Maori as poor managers—in being either corrupt or financially incompetent—using denigrating and insulting comments about Maori and highlighting bad news about Maori over good news. I wonder exactly what fine this House would impose on the media for the poor manner in which they have treated Maori issues. I would also ask this House what it would consider to be an appropriate fine for the decades of neglect deceit and abuse heaped upon Maori people by successive Governments and properly recorded by the UN special rapporteur. 
Today we try to alert the House to another breach of privilege—the denial of funding for Maori Television by NZ On Air for programmes designed for a nationwide audience. Apparently NZ On Air’s response was that it did not believe that a broadcast of commemorations and historical coverage of the war efforts of brave courageous and patriotic New Zealanders was worthy of support on Maori Television. 
The Maori Party stands by the report of the Privileges Committee and congratulates it on its ground-breaking decision to protect the right of workers to blow the whistle on bad employment practices a matter we intend to speak on during debates on other legislation coming before this House. The Maori Party also asks this House whether in seeking to discipline others for a breach of privilege it perhaps accepts that the United Nations might be an independent arbiter of our own standards the decisions our Governments make and the impacts those decisions have on our own indigenous peoples.