Fledgling TV station accuses Nats of 'Maori bashing'

1.00pm

A fledgling Far North television station is accusing the National Party of Maori bashing after questions were raised about its funding.

Te Reo Irirangi o Te Hiku o Te Ika, which runs three radio stations in the Far North, has received a $115,000 taxpayer-funded Community Employment Group grant to set up a regional television station called TEHIKU TV.

National Party MP Katherine Rich is concerned that the funding allocation came as the Government spent millions developing a national Maori channel.

Taxpayers would be alarmed to learn they were funding a second Maori television channel before the first had been launched, Mrs Rich said.

However, Te Reo Irirangi chief executive Hone Harawira said his organisation was not trying to establish a Maori television station but a service that would broadcast programmes of interest to all people living in the Far North.

"I think it's just kick-a-nigger month and everyone is out to find one to kick. She (Katherine Rich) thinks she has found one here," he said.

Mr Harawira said while he was actively pro-Maori he did not believe Maori was the only group that mattered in the Far North and the service would reflect all sectors of the community.

"We've applied for and been given approval for a community television licence and we're trying to develop programmes of interest to the whole of the Far North community.

"Fifty per cent of that community is Maori and I would expect the programming to reflect that but we are also talking with other groups and the local business community to develop a schedule which encompasses all sectors."

The station had already filmed the Ninety Mile Beach Snapper Classic fishing contest and a Miss Northland competition -- neither of which could be described as exclusively Maori events.

The television service employed the equivalent of 2.5 full-time staff and the funding was being used to build up programme material before the launch of the station.

The station, which will broadcast north of Mangamuka (36km southeast of Kaitaia), would not be a profit-seeking operation and any profits made would go back into the community. It also aimed to provide footage for national television networks.

Mrs Rich said she was appalled by Mr Harawira's"kick-a- nigger" comments.

"I think that sort of language is appalling. I can't believe that any New Zealander should use or support that language." She saw it as an attempt to deflect attention away from serious issues raised.

Mr Harawira said he had made the remark in response to comments by National Party leader Don Brash and other high-profile politicians trying to "get on the (Maori bashing) bandwagon".

Mrs Rich maintained the funding had been given to set up a Maori television station, citing information given to her by Social Development Minister Steve Maharey in response to Parliamentary questions about the grant.

In response, Mr Maharey said Te Reo Irirangi o Te Hiku o te Ika received a Community Employment Group grant of $115,000 for a project named TEHIKU TV "which had the stated purpose to establish a Maori television station in the Far North". Ms Rich said that proved the grant was given to establish a Maori television station.

However, Mr Harawira said Mr Maharey's comment appeared to be based on an assumption that, because of the organisation's title, it was establishing a Maori television station. He said there might have been a mix-up in communication between the two parties.

"I knew that I couldn't get a Maori television licence. There's only one Maori television station and that's MTS.

"I knew that the only (licence) I could get was a community one," he said.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)