te Heuheu Georgina: Maori Television Service Bill — Second Reading 
te Heuheu Georgina: Maori Television Service Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:607;Page:4910] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (NZ National) 
: 
 As a member of Parliament and a Maori member of Parliament I am embarrassed to be associated with a bill that sets up a Maori Television Service that far from being the triumph for Maori that it should be has so far been an utter disaster and an utter debacle—and on current form is likely to remain so. That is a huge shame; it is hugely disappointing. This Government and particularly this Minister must take full responsibility for the debacle that has ensued over the last 3 years. The establishment of the Maori Television Service was a flagship policy of this Government when it came into power in 1999. The Government is now into its second term and we are still inching our way towards that service and there is no guarantee whatsoever that the proposals set out in this bill will achieve the objectives that have been set. 
That situation is also disappointing given that so much of the work as the Minister has pointed out had its background its genesis in a claim to the Waitangi Tribunal in the early 1990s a Privy Council ruling in 1993 and a Government intention which was set out at that point to establish a service. The previous National Government did a lot of the preparatory work in the 1990s. Also while there were some mistakes we learnt from them. We should have all learnt from those mistakes but no. What has happened? In the 21st century after all the work that was done in the 1990s the mistakes go on and on. As I have said there is no guarantee that this bill will minimise mistakes in the future. This Minister is responsible for the Maori Television Service and he must make sure that what goes on from now on actually has the potential to succeed. 
The other pity about this situation is that many New Zealanders actually want this service to work as well. I am pleased to hear of the appointment of Wayne Walden. I know him reasonably well; in fact I have worked with him. The fact that he has agreed to be the chair says something about the kind of grunt and expertise he is willing to bring to the service and it says something about the kind of people who know him and respect his professionalism in the business world. They also probably want this service to succeed having seen his appointment as chair of the board. As I say many New Zealanders want this service to work. They want to know more about the Maori world. But what have they learnt in the 3 years since this Minister has had responsibility for the Maori Television Service? They have learnt that if there is a mistake—a big disaster a debacle or whatever—the Government will overlook it and will not call for full accountability. In fact nobody will take any responsibility for it whatsoever. 
We saw that in the debacle over the John Davy appointment. In the end who was shafted badly there? It was Millennium People. But did anybody in this House take responsibility for that debacle? No—and ultimately when we are spending taxpayers’ money someone in this House has the responsibility for that expenditure. This Minister did not take that responsibility—a Minister who says he is here to develop and grow Maori was willing to see this Government the Prime Minister and his colleagues shaft Millennium People just like that as if it was totally to blame for that appointment. We know that it was not. 
I come to the examination of this bill by the Maori Affairs Committee. Although some reasonable changes were recommended the problem is that a number of matters remain outstanding. They were in some respects cursorily addressed by the Government members of the committee. They are matters like the structure the functions the funding the control and reporting and something that I am pretty committed to: issues of ownership and the treaty. I ask whether the Maori Television Service is a discharge of the Crown’s treaty obligations or whether there is another rationale for it. That question was asked before the select committee particularly by the Maori Television Service and others. It was not answered though the structure and accountability mechanisms of this bill suggest that there is another rationale for the service. 
When the Government speaks of a social obligation one starts to think that this service is a muddle like most other things that this Government does. Yes it is being established because of the treaty but hello the dollars are to be allocated in the same way that the dollars for other projects are and there are no clear ultimate ownership provisions in this bill. So when we come to the Committee stage I will be asking the Minister to answer things like that because the submissions to the select committee from the Maori Television Service in particular were reasonable. Most of its submissions were ignored but that does not make the issues go away. Since they have not been addressed now those things will come back to haunt the Government. 
The issue about whether this service is being established in satisfaction of a treaty obligation is important for future Governments because the mishmash of this legislation is such that we do not know what the rationale for the service is. References to the treaty are littered throughout the bill—and particularly when we look at the background and the parts of the bill that state that it makes provision for cooperation between Maori and the Crown to preserve protect and promote te reo Maori—but with little effect. I do not know where in any of the cases where judgments were made in the early 1990s the obligations of Maori were referred to. But because it is a good thing for the Crown to look as though it is starting to discharge treaty obligations it says it is doing that on the one hand while on the other hand it is making others responsible for the service as well. 
So there is mishmash here. Who are the owners of this entity? There is uncertainty regarding the beneficial ownership of the Maori Television Service. What is the nature of the relationship between and what are the status rights powers and obligations of the electoral college and the responsible Ministers? Those are important questions. As I have asked already what about the funding? Are these Crown dollars or are they treaty dollars? I say to the Minister that there is a clear distinction in that regard and that Maori will come back to a future Government and say the Government did not actually discharge its responsibilities under the Treaty of Waitangi. That becomes a real concern for us in the National Party because we envisage that one day we will be sitting on the Government benches. There is no way that we will want Maori to come back to us and say they are going to the courts again because this service was not provided in satisfaction of a treaty obligation. The Minister cannot get away with the mishmash of provisions that this bill is all about. 
Neither can the Minister get away with pretending that the accountability mechanisms in this bill will work when the conduct of the Government so far has been to sheet home to other people all the accountability for the things that have gone wrong. The Minister in charge of this bill is the Minister in charge of the expenditure of this money and on current form this Minister has failed miserably. That does not augur well for the setting up of the Maori Television Service. 
In conclusion I say the now chief executive officer of the Maori Television Service Derek Fox came to the select committee on 7 November to give us a bit of a report back. The big concern at that time was the transmission platform. We know that the Government did not go with the CanWest TV4 option which those who know about it said would have got this service out to a bigger percentage of Maori homes. That is the stupidity of it as well—this is a Maori television service and there are homes that it will not beam into. Derek Fox said the service had to go with what it had. He said that the decision that was made on the transmission platform was not the best option for the service but the service had to go with it. I hope this Minister makes sure the service is a success.