Turei Metiria: Māori Television Service (Te Aratuku Whakaata Irirangi Māori) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTurei Metiria: Māori Television Service (Te Aratuku Whakaata Irirangi Māori) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 19 November 2013. Volume:695;Page:14956. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. The Green Party supports this legislation the Māori Television Service (Te Aratuku Whakaata Irirangi Māori) Amendment Bill. We are very pleased that it has been brought to the House and is about to be passed. That is great.I want to make just a few comments before taking my seat again. One of them is to acknowledge again the role that Māori Television plays in the promotion of Te Reo Māori and tikanga Māori and also the fantastic role it plays in connecting our communities together—the Pākehā community and the Māori community. It shows our own country and the world all of those stories about the reality of Māori lives and all the good stories about Māori lives that do not get shown anywhere else. It is a fantastic service that this station is doing for our country for our relationships and for the process of post-colonial issues that we are having to deal with.I just want to issue a word of caution around some of the comments that have been made this evening. My question to my colleague Kris Faafoi about how Television New Zealand appoints its chief executive was a genuine one. I was not shouting just to be mean. It was a genuine question because there is actually a bit of a fine line between even-handed regulatory oversight for which this Parliament and its agents are responsible and a kind of paternalistic approach to Māori organisations. Māori organisations have suffered paternalistic control and management by the State by State agencies and by Parliament for decade after decade after decade. That has tended to strangle the innovation and opportunities that Māori organisations at all kinds of different levels have but at the same time there is public money that needs to be properly considered.Where there is public money going into any agency anywhere there needs to be even-handed and proper regulatory oversight. From my point of view I absolutely do not think that the structure that determines who the chief executive officer of Māori Television is should be any different from any other structure that is established for any other similar organisation. I think there is a real issue around the way that Māori organisations can often be treated. There are issues around the appointment of staffing or chief executive officers and there are all sorts of issues that arise from time to time with any agency any organisation that receives public funding. Yes the use of that funding should be questioned but Māori organisations must not be treated in a way that exerts more control over them than any other organisation and any attempt to do so is a furthering of the colonisation process. And when you are talking about something like Māori Television which is operating to undo some of those negative impacts of colonisation it undermines the whole effectiveness of that organisation.Having heard all of thekōrero through the second reading some of the Committee stage and even tonight at the third reading I really think that we need to be very cautious about how we treat Māori Television in this context. It is doing a great job. Every organisation is going to have its problems. Yes it is right to question where there is public funding but beyond that there must be absolute caution in making sure that that questioning is even-handed and careful so that Māori organisations are not treated differently from other organisations.Beyond that this is a great bill. It is great to see it passed. It is going to help Māori Television move into the digital age and expand in all sorts of innovative and fantastic ways and we look forward to that future. Kia ora.