Speech: Dr Pita Sharples to Maori Television fifth birthday

Tuatahi, me mihi ki te tangata whenua, kua whakamana nei i nga mahi o te po nei – tena koutou katoa.

It is an honour to be asked to speak in the presence of so many great people tonight

I want to acknowledge a few among the many whose presence, and whose contribution must be recognised.

Parliamentary protocol is that I start with my colleagues:

- The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Hon Bill English, my fellow shareholding Minister in Maori Television

- Hon Gerry Brownlee, Minister of Economic Development

- Hon Steven Joyce, Minister of Communications and Information Technology

- Hon Jonathan Coleman, Minister of Broadcasting

- the former Minister of Maori Affairs, Hon Parekura Horomia, whose colleagues the Rt Hon Helen Clark and Rt Hon Michael Cullen got stalled negotiations with Maori back on track in 2001, and who nurtured Maori Television through its formative stages

- My colleagues in the Maori Party, who helped kick-start Maori Television’s news and current affairs programmes, by organising a number of hikoi and providing colourful footage and dramatic sound bites for weeks of exciting bulletins!

- The many MPs here from across the political spectrum

E huri ana au ki nga manuhiri tuarangi:

- Kingi Tuheitia koutou ko nga mana o Tainui waka

- Tumu Te Heuheu me te whare ariki o Ngati Tuwharetoa

- koutou ko nga manukura o nga iwi, o nga ropu Maori

- Te Putahi Paoho, and chair Tu Williams, who represent Maori as partners with the Crown in this enterprise we are celebrating tonight

- To Garry Muriwai and the Board of Maori Television, who are entrusted with overall responsibility

- Jim Mather, CEO, and senior management, who keep the ship running

- There are a number of staff here too, representing the many others who put their heart and soul into Maori TV

- TVNZ is also here, tena koutou

- I’d also like to acknowledge the officials, some of whom are here tonight, who also keep Maori television on air – Te Puni Kokiri, the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage, Treasury, Economic Development, Te Mangai Paho and others.

Maori Television has been a dream of Maori people since the mid 1970s, when Whatarangi Winiata developed a specific proposal. Whata and Derek Fox later came close to securing the third TV channel for Aotearoa Broadcasting Systems in 1986.

Momentum built up when Nga Kaiwhakapumau went to the Waitangi Tribunal in 1984, concerning te reo, including broadcasting. Justice Joseph Williams was a student when he worked on that claim. The report on WAI 11 led quickly to the Maori Language Act, and Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Maori in 1987.

This was the time when the Maori Council, Tainui and others began a series of legal cases over the privatisation of SOEs.

Before public broadcasters became SOEs, Nga Kaiwhakapumau and the Maori Council took a case in 1989, which asked how the Crown would fulfil its obligations to protect te reo Maori in a free-market broadcasting environment.

The ten years of constant litigation that followed established the framework for Maori broadcasting as we know it today – with Te Mangai Paho funding iwi radio stations, a national radio news service, Maori programmes on mainstream radio and television, and Maori Television, with programmes made by independent production houses – all protected by the Courts.

Dr Huirangi Waikerepuru and his little team, and Sir Graham Latimer and the Maori Council, were the front people. Right behind them were the Maori Women’s Welfare League, the Maori Congress, Kohanga Reo, the churches and iwi all over the country.

The key members of the legal team were Dame Sian Elias, now the Chief Justice who is here tonight, and the late Martin Dawson.

E kiia ana, mo te kaupapa penei te taumaha, he tangata te utu. Martin did not live to see Maori Television go to air, but he would have been comforted to know that his children and future generations of New Zealanders would enjoy the legacy.

The historic achievement that we are able to celebrate tonight, is that Maori Television has been able to transcend the conflicts, arguments and criticism inherent in that history, and reach out and unite New Zealanders of all kinds.

The justification for protecting Maori language, access to airwaves, and finally Maori Television, was tied to the Treaty of Waitangi.

20 years ago, to most New Zealanders, the Treaty meant special privileges for Maori, money down the drain, and a backward-looking society divided along racial lines.

Most New Zealanders were hugely sceptical of Maori television, especially because any problem that arose along the way was blown out of all proportion.

On the other side, Maori had been waiting for so long, 30 years, to hear their own voice and see their own stories on their own television, that anticipation and expectations were sky-high.

There was potential for disaster.

But failure was not an option.

The channel was launched with confidence, and quickly consolidated.

With bold programming, a young and passionate team, heaps of community support and involvement, and a kaupapa of manaakitanga, we were away!

Maori Television quickly reached across the perception gap, and drew in a huge Pakeha audience – on ANZAC Day, Waitangi Day, and by sponsoring the Breakers.

To me, Maori Television is about us as Maori, for the whole nation.

It is critical for Maori Television to maintain its cultural integrity, to be the voice OF Maori people, and accountable to the iwi – because its authenticity is the reason why it appeals to a wider audience.

On Maori TV, people can see with their own eyes that what’s good for Maori is good for the nation.

I also want to salute Maori Television’s leadership among indigenous broadcasters around the world. It is good for New Zealand to have these relationships.

Maori TV is not something that divides us, but unites us as a New Zealanders.

It is vital for our future that Maori Television keep faith with the kaupapa laid down, maintain focus on te reo and tikanga Maori, and at the same time, explore the furthest horizons defined by new digital platforms and convergence of technologies.

I must add that my speaking tonight as Minister of Maori Affairs is proof that we are making similar progress in our political life, which is also good for New Zealand.

So, in celebrating Maori Television’s fifth birthday, we also celebrate a strong voice of Maori people, and a kaupapa of unity in diversity which motivated those who dreamed and struggled and negotiated and worked to get us all here tonight.

Finally I have a message from Prime Minister John Key, who could not be with us tonight.

(Pita, could you please convey my warmest congratulations to Garry, Jim and all the staff at this milestone the 5th birthday of Maori Television. The success of Maori Television is in no small part a direct result of the many talented staff who make up this world-class broadcaster. Happy birthday and best wishes, John Key.)

Kia ora tatou katoa.