Smith Murray: Maori Television Service Bill — In Committee 
Smith Murray: Maori Television Service Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:608;Page:5111] 
MURRAY SMITH (United Future) 
: 
 I refer to schedule 1 and in particular to clause 10(2)(b) which states that one of the issues to be considered in dispute resolution is “whether and when to seek information from and review the performance of the Service:”. I have already referred to my major concerns about the amount of money that is going into this television service bill which is somewhat of a black hole. We are talking about $30 million or $40 million a year going in to fund the Maori Television Service. That is a huge amount of money we are spending from public funds to float this service. 
When we come to issues of accountability the very least we can expect is a strong provision for accountability regarding that money. As members of Parliament we expect to have some sort of right to know where this money is going and we expect the right to know that it will be spent wisely. Already many questions have arisen as to whether money has been spent wisely thus far. So when we look at clause 10(2)(b) we see that there are very lax accountability standards and we found those standards when we looked back at clause 15 of the bill which lists the college’s accountability standards. In particular I notice from clause 15 that the functions of Te Putahi Paoho are to appoint four of the seven directors of the service; to provide direction to the chairperson of Te Putahi Paoho in the performance and exercise of his or her functions and powers; to consider the need to increase or decrease the number of organisations represented on the college; and to receive the accountability documents prepared by the board. At least at that point there is some sort of reception of accountability documents. I note though that the power and function of the college is to receive accountability documents; I see nowhere any powers that it has in terms of what it does once it has received them. That seems to me to mean that the college can receive anything it likes and that anything that is presented to it is simply tabled. Whether or not the college likes it there is nothing it can do if it is unhappy with the accountability documents that are given to it. The best the college can do is to provide some sort of directions to the chairperson but that will not get it very far. Certainly it will not make the Maori Television Service very accountable. 
We see in clause 16 that there must be consultation with the Minister in terms of the preparation of a statement of intent and in terms of the review of the performance so that the Minister and the college jointly may—and I note the word “may”; there is no “shall” here—review the performance of the service. With that background we then look at the provisions of schedule 1 which take us a little bit further on and perhaps give us some sort of inclination as to what that accountability will be about and what we can expect to see from the accountability. When we look at clause 10(2)(b) in schedule 1 we find that there is an issue as to whether any information will be provided at all and as to whether the service will be reviewed in terms of its performance. Even if it is reviewed there are questions as to when that information will be sought. So we may not see any review for 5 years. We may not see a review for 10 years. We may never see a review because it is within the power of the responsible Minister and the chairperson of the college to determine whether and when to seek a review. It seems to me therefore that the Maori Television Service could go on and on using up tens of millions of taxpayers’ dollars without very much accountability whatsoever. Not only may the service never be called to account but even if it is called to account we have seen in clause 15(1)(d) that the power of the college is simply to receive the accountability documents. There is nothing there that gives the college any power in terms of any sort of direction or any withholding of funds or anything else like that that would give it any teeth whatsoever if it was convinced the Maori Television board was not producing as well as it should produce. I have very real concerns about that. I am concerned about all that money going into a black hole.