Flavell Te Ururoa: Appointments — Electoral Commission Deputy Judicial Conduct Commissioner 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Appointments — Electoral Commission Deputy Judicial Conduct Commissioner 
[Volume:673;Page:19706] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to have a say about the appointment of Jane Huria as deputy chair of the Electoral Commission. The Maori Party stands to support Jane’s appointment to that position. In doing so we firstly mihi to Ngai Tahu and Ngai Tuahuriri on the honour of this appointment—an appointment that we believe is absolutely warranted. 
It is a particularly interesting day for this appointment to come before the House. Jane is a member of the Red Cross 2011 Earthquake Commission which has been set up to provide charitable relief to the Christchurch community from the effects of the recent earthquakes and aftershocks. As Christchurch is no doubt still reeling from the announcements made earlier this afternoon about properties and houses no longer able to be lived in we are pleased that there is something special at least for Ngai Tahu to consider in terms of the appointment of this very strong nominee. 
As I understand it and as has been expressed in this House Jane comes to this position with a wealth of experience in governance and organisation. She has broad-based commercial experience including in law insurance market research and financial markets. In addition to that experience she has directorships in the electricity technology business development education insurance property development agribusiness seafood marketing and sport and recreation sectors. 
As other speakers have said she serves on a number of boards and she is a lay member of the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal and a member of the management advisory group for the Secretary to the Treasury. If all of that is not enough she is also patron of the University of Canterbury Foundation a supporter of the Christchurch Arts Festival and a board member of the Court Theatre. Not only does she sit on many of those boards but also she develops and teaches public and in-house governance courses for the Institute of Directors in New Zealand for the Tertiary Education Commission for university polytechnic and wananga councils and for Sport and Recreation New Zealand. All of these qualifications make her an ideal applicant for the position. 
There is one more reason that I think it is particularly pleasing that tangata whenua has been appointed to this particular role. In the recent process of broadcasting allocations we believe that decisions were made that in effect devalue the role of the Treaty and of te reo Maori as the official language of Aotearoa. The Maori Party allocation was dramatically reduced between 2008 and 2011 to the effect of a loss of some $90000. We could not help but wonder whether confusion has arisen over the differing legislative responsibilities that govern the broadcasting allocation process—namely between the Broadcasting Act 1989 and the Electoral Act 1993. Although the Broadcasting Act has clear requirements on promoting Maori language and Maori culture the Electoral Act refers only to Maori representation. We were astounded that the only party that exclusively represents the Maori electorates was allocated less than 5 percent of the funding for a population that represents 17 percent of the New Zealand population. 
We hope therefore that this appointment will give special capacity to speak to tangata whenua as the Treaty partner to focus on voting constituencies that have been historically under-represented with low turn-out particularly of young Maori and to our unique capacity to express our message through te reo rangatira te reo Maori. We strongly support the appointment of Jane Huria.