Matt McCarten: Sharples cops the blame for a National disgrace

After Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples was smacked down by his National Party allies, it looked as if this weekend's Maori Party annual conference was going to be a very unhappy event.

What got Government ministers upset last week was Sharples' support for Maori Television's deal with Te Puni Kokiri (Ministry of Maori Development) on sponsoring a bid for the free-to-air television rights for the Rugby World Cup.

Government sources claimed it was not an appropriate use of taxpayers' money. Nor was it seen as practical for Maori Television to think they could do it, given they had only 90 per cent transmission coverage of the country.

More ugly was the leaking by government spin doctors that Sharples had, through his inexperience, neglected to inform his National Party colleagues about the Maori Television bid.

Fortunately it didn't take long for the real story to emerge. Te Puni Kokiri's business case was a strong one, given it could justify its sponsorship on the basis of the captive audience to which it could promote its services, as well as the participation of secondary sponsors.

It also transpired that Maori Television only put in a bid after TVNZ had told them it wasn't putting in a comprehensive one.

The claim Sharples had not informed the Government of Te Puni Kokiri's contribution also fell flat when records showed he had written about it to Bill English in June.

The whole thing came unstuck when Murray McCully, as Minister for the Rugby World Cup, found out and went ballistic. He apparently demanded English call a meeting of the relevant players, at which McCully turned up and gave them all a dressing down.

Now, it seems, English, McCully and the Broadcasting Minister, Jonathan Coleman, all knew parts about what was happening but hadn't kept each other informed. It's clear to me the only person who did his job properly was Sharples.

We had the ludicrous situation where initially the Government claimed it was unacceptable for taxpayers' money to be used for the Maori Television bid but saw no hypocrisy when it declared later it was prepared to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to support a joint TVNZ/TV3 bid in competition.

But then, the readiness to use taxpayers' funds for the Rugby World Cup was never really an issue. Just look at the tens of millions of dollars we are stumping up for Eden Park.

Even the pretext that supporting TVNZ/TV3 over Maori Television because the two main stations had wider coverage was dishonest, as neither of them covers all of the country anyway.

Maori Television had always said it would provide full nationwide coverage through sub-contracting.

The manner in which Sharples was blamed for the Government's mishandling of this incident was instructive - not only because of the personal disrespect to Sharples but because of the Government's own incompetent political management.

Some Maori made a strong case that there was a racist tinge to the Maori Television opposition. Sources inside the Maori Party believe that as long as the Maori Party is subservient to the National Party then all is well in National. As one observed, many National MPs are not comfortable dealing with Maori.

Fortunately for the Government and the Maori Party, John Key saw that this fiasco was turning into a serious rift between the coalition partners and intervened decisively.

Key withdrew the promise of funding for the TVNZ/TV3 bid, promising to back all three broadcasters on the basis Maori Television got the lion's share.

Sharples can now go to his party's conference and rightly claim victory.

As well, he has got all New Zealanders free-to-air coverage, and, as a bonus, the taxpayer doesn't have to stump up unnecessary millions more.

But like the argument over Maori seats on the new Supercity, when it comes to a choice between the Maori Party and National's core voters there is no question where the Government will line up.

Maori Party conference delegates should be aware that National will only ever be fair-weather friends.