Māori TV budget cuts: Labour attacks Government over Whakaata Māori job losses

Former Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson has labelled proposed cuts at Whakaata Māori “really sad” and said he’s sick of hearing the Government blame Labour for the organisation’s lack of funding.

Whakaata Māori has proposed a major shake-up of its internal structure, with major ramifications in the content department as well as the probable axing of its daily television news bulletin.

The national indigenous broadcaster is set to lose $10.3 million of time-locked funding provided by the previous government from its budget, with no indication the current coalition Government intends to supplement it.

In Parliament yesterday, Jackson pleaded with the Government to “invest in Whakaata Māori”, saying his tenure as Māori Development Minister saw strategies devised and funding provided for Māori media.

“We put a Māori broadcasting strategy together and they’re just ignoring it and blaming us. And we’re sick of it.”

Māori Development Tama Potaka and his predecessor, Labour MP Willie Jackson. Photo / Te Ao Māori News

He agreed when asked if it represented another attack on te reo Māori.

“Of course, it’s constant weekly attacks, whether it’s Māori language, whether it’s the tribunal, whether it’s any kaupapa Māori. It’s a weekly and constant attack. Te ao Māori are sick of it. You hear the different iwi who are taking the Government to court. It’s never-ending.”

No one immune to media sector issues

Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka conceded there were “a lot of matters challenging te reo Māori right now” but said, “certainly in my space and head, te reo Māori is fundamental to this country’s past, present and future”.

But he viewed the fiscal issues facing Whakaata Māori as part of the issues facing wider mainstream media.

The Whakaata Māori building in South Auckland won a New Zealand Institute of Architects award.

“Look, I’m aware that there are some fiscal challenges for Māori media, Māori TV, Whakaata Māori, but a lot of media organisations are going through that and they are taking the steps to be fiscally responsible and fiscally prudent and acknowledge and tautoko for them to maintain their fiscal prudence.”

He said no one was immune to the issues facing the media sector, largely derived from decreases in advertising revenue on linear television.

However, Whakaata Māori’s primary funder was the New Zealand government.

Jackson said Aotearoa “loses as a whole” when considering Whakaata Māori’s place in the media eco-system and how it interacted with other media outlets, often through content partnership agreements.