Broadcasting Amendment Bill

Mr Speaker, this Broadcasting Amendment Bill, gives the House a good opportunity to look back on the first principles of broadcasting in Aotearoa, and when I talk principles, I’m talking about those Treaty principles that both NZ First, and Labour, with their large band of Tontos, have voted to dump from legislation, those Treaty principles that Maori up and down the country hold fast to as the only validation of the Treaty in legislation in this country.

Now this Bill Mr Speaker, arises out of the Broadcasting Assets Case, NZ Maori Council v Attorney-General, of December 1993, in which the Privy Council noted in their decision, that:

“The Treaty records an agreement executed by the Crown and Maori which over 150 years later is of the greatest constitutional importance to New Zealand”

And I’ll repeat that because it is such an important point:

“The Treaty records an agreement executed by the Crown and Maori which over 150 years later is of the greatest constitutional importance to New Zealand”

The Privy Council went on to say that:

Foremost among the principles are the obligations which the Crown undertook of protecting and preserving Maori property, including the Maori language as taonga in return for being recognised as the legitimate government of the whole nation by Maori.

If, as is the case with the Maori language at the present time, a taonga is in a vulnerable state, this has to be taken into account by the Crown…..and may well require the Crown to take especially vigorous action for its protection.



And that Mr Speaker is the basis from which we need to consider this Bill –

does it include the vigorous action by which Maori language and culture will be promoted and protected?
does it bear in mind the constitutional importance of the Treaty? and
does it deal properly with the obligations of the Crown to protect and preserve Maori property.


It is with these guidelines in mind that the Maori Party will support this proposal to amend the Broadcasting Act 1989 to enable NZ On Air and Te Mangai Paho to fund digital broadcasting content, archiving, and transmission.



But we still have to ask the question - does it stack up against those criteria established by the Privy Council – the constitutional importance of the Treaty, government obligation, and vigorous action to protect vulnerable taonga?

Well the Minister of Maori Affairs thought so, when he said on 26 July 2007 that:

“Without a dedicated Maori digital television service, there is the potential for a diminished presence of Maori language and culture in the lives of all New Zealanders”

And giving the assurance particularly of Maori television, that:

“there will be no decrease in the amount of Maori language programming on the first channel”.

Mr Speaker, the Minister’s words are important because the debate over TVNZ’s Maori Programming Strategy, suggest some clear direction about Maori language programming across all channels is needed.



The Maori Party supports the current framework for purchasing programmes and broadcasting services through NZ On Air and Te Māngai Pāho, where both agencies continue to have a focus on Māori programmes and services, and archiving of these programmes is a positive step, but we also firmly believe that Maori must have a greater say in the way in which resources are allocated for the promotion of Māori language and culture through broadcasting, and the TVNZ Maori Programme Tragedy is a classic example.

When they first announced it, the increase in Maori programming hours sounded great, but when you look at the scheduling, you quickly realise what a sham it really is.

Take Te Karere for example, TVNZ’s Maori News Flagship. It has never, ever been treated as a news programme, and it’s timing has always reflected that. For years it played second fiddle to sport, getting shunted back to midnight whenever cricket was on.

Then when cricket shifted to Sky, Te Karere got left out in the boonies – out in the Kids Programming slot, at 4.30pm, and replayed at 6.05am.

And now, with TVNZ’s new Maori Programming Strategy being announced in a blaze of publicity we find that Te Karere is – wait for it - getting dumped into an even worse slot – 3.45 in the afternoon, midnight and 5.45am for heavens sake.

And then we find that Waka Huia and Marae, TVNZ’s major Maori documentary and current affairs programmes have just been slashed in half, and Waka Huia has just been shunted back into Sunday morning, after slowly building a solid audience in it’s Saturday morning slot.

Mr Speaker, this is just another insult to Maori programming, and I challenge the Minister of Maori Affairs to take steps to ensure Maori Language programming is not downgraded by people whose ignorance of Maori programming is already clear for all to see.



This Sunday morning shuffle that TVNZ is engaged in with Waka Huia, reminded me of a similar dance from a few years back, so I had a look through the records and guess what I found?

A Listener article which described a time when Waka Huia was pushed back from 11am on Sunday to 10am to make way for the life-changing, New Zealand society building, revolutionary children’s programme, ‘Little House on the Prairie’.

And a comment from Hone Kaa, former presenter and co-producer of Waka Huia who said at the time:

“There are powers which determine when you might be seen….I think it’s about time those people started to realise that we are the indigenous tangata whenua, and that maybe we ought to have priority over some of the American shit that we’re watching”.

The date of that article Mr Speaker, was 28 March 1987 – 20 years ago – but it could have been written yesterday, for all the progress that hasn’t been made on Maori programming at TVNZ.



The point is Mr Speaker, this Bill looks good, and we support moves for video-on-demand, interactivity, reversioning and so on, but it all means diddly squat if the State Broadcaster is using this process to relegate Maori programming to the twilight hours.

Which brings me back to the point of giving Maori a more direct stake in the growth of Maori language and culture through broadcasting.

Now MTS is an enormous achievement, but government must continue to support the development of management and technical skills and experience within the industry, as well as allowing the Service to grow its commitment to Maori language and culture.

It’s great that in its short life, MTS has taken prizes for Best Event Coverage at the 2006 Qantas Television Awards; Best Documentary for the TV Guide, Best on the Box People’s Choice Awards, and other awards, but we mustn’t blind ourselves to the reality that TVNZ was fully, absolutely, and totally state-funded for 40 years, while MTS has only ever been part-funded for 5, and Maori radio has not received an operational increase in it’s funding in almost 20 years.

Government needs to make a greater obligation to Maori broadcasting to ensure continuous and ongoing improvement in both radio and television.



I also want to refer to the amendments in the Bill to change Te Mangai Paho’s primary function by adding the archiving of Maori language and culture programmes to it’s role, and I am reminded of a story from another trailblazer Maori broadcaster, Ernie Leonard who told a story that while watching all the elders walking up the steps of the New York Metropolitan Museum during the Te Maori Exhibition, the hairs rose on his neck, as he thought what would happen if the plane carrying those people home crashed and all of those very important people were lost?

Preserving and protecting our stories is absolutely vital to our future as a people and as a nation, and is a development we support fully.

But I leave us with one final comment – the Maori Party is gravely concerned that Maori language programme funding is already very tight – in spite of the ruling of the Privy Council, the statutory direction of the Broadcasting Act, and the huge surpluses that TVNZ has run up.

And I have to ask the obvious questions –

What strategy does government have to provide annual increases in Maori broadcasting funding to support the development of management and technical skills and experience within the industry, as well as allowing the Service to grow its commitment to Maori language and culture?
What funding increases have been determined to enable Maori radio and television to properly benefit from digital broadcast development?
Is Maori broadcasting expected to take on video-on-demand, interactivity, reversioning, and digital broadcasting content, archiving, and transmission without the funding to do so?
Or will Maori broadcasting be expected to cut back even further to enable its funding to be used for mainstream digital broadcast development?


Budget 2007 gave some money to Maori radio and to MTS, but it falls well short of what is required to properly develop these services and their products, and we hope to use the select committee process to raise these constitutional, legal and financial issues to ensure Maori broadcasting is not neutralised in this new digital era.