Maharey Steve: General Debates 
Maharey Steve: General Debates 
[Volume:609;Page:6360] 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 I think most members would acknowledge that one of the basic rules of the House is that Oppositions should oppose. They should scrutinise Ministers they should ask questions about departments and they should make sure that money is spent in the way that it should be spent. That is their job. 
It does not matter who or what someone or something is whether a Maori Minister a Maori department or any other part of the State or part of the Government machinery that person or thing should be under scrutiny and accountable for what is spent. Questions from the Opposition should be able to be answered in terms of what has been done. Te MangaiPaho is no different from any other organisation. 
It is an organisation that stretches back some time. It goes back to section 53B of the Broadcasting Act 1989 when Te MangaiPaho was charged with the responsibility of advancing the Maori language and culture by making funds available on a variety of terms and conditions so that people could make programmes for broadcast for that purpose. There is a vision that says: “Speak Maori every day every way every where. It is a vision that has been very clearly stated and very clearly followed through since that organisation was put together basically by Maurice Williamson of the National Party—and well supported of course by the National Party. 
Problems have arisen with Te MangaiPaho over the last little while. Quite reasonably there have been questions asked about what it is doing. That has resulted in the chairperson stepping down the chief executive officer being on indefinite leave and Wira Gardiner being brought in to spend his time as chairperson of that organisation ensuring that everything is being run as it should be and that it is being properly overseen by the Minister of Maori Affairs who is keen to make sure everything works as it should. 
 Through all of this of course has run the number of questions raised by members of the House—in particular Mr Rodney Hide. Mr Rodney Hide has raised a number of questions usually by coming down at question time standing and in a pontificating way saying across the House in that imperious tone of his that he wants answers to some latest accusation that he wants to raise. And he has raised many. He has wanted to cast aspersions on all the activities of Te MangaiPaho despite his being repeatedly told that out of the many contracts let by this organisation only a few of them are in question at all and despite his having access to reports from the Auditor-General and other people who tell us that overall this organisation is running well and doing its job as it should. 
There is a definable small problem here to be resolved. Mr Hide comes down to the House time and time again to raise questions. I ask this question of the House: if this organisation were not a Maori organisation would Mr Hide have been doing this? This is the litmus test. Mr Hide came down here yesterday asked his question yet again and told us the long story of a sad saga about broadcasting that he had to reveal to us. Then I woke up this morning to find like everybody else that Mr Hide would not appear on the radio. He could not be found. He had nothing to say. He did not know what was going on with his question because as it now turns out he has had to apologise for having absolutely no evidence at all. That is the test that I do not think Mr Hide has passed. Mr Hide would not have come down to the House without evidence and assumed that something was wrong assumed that he could get away with saying whatever he liked about this organisation without proof and assumed that somehow it would just be OK—that he could make these kinds of accusations without any proof and he would get away with it it would be OK—if it were a Pakeha organisation. I do not believe he would have done that to the Inland Revenue Department to the Ministry of Social Development or to Treasury; he would have got his facts right. 
Mr Hide is no fool. Mr Hide is a man who spends his time in the gutter getting the scandals out—that is the nature of his trade as a parliamentarian. He is not a Don Brash; he does not want the issues. He wants only one thing—the scandals. He checks his facts usually before he comes down but not this time. That really does raise something in my mind that I want to reflect on today and that I want members to reflect on. We all say to each other in here that there is one rule of accountability for us all and we agree with that. Well let us see Mr Hide do that. Let us see Mr Hide come down here and raise questions only when he has proof and not cast aspersions as he did yesterday that prove to be wrong. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed. 
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