Horomia struggles under MPs' attack

By AUDREY YOUNG

Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia yesterday struggled for coherence in Parliament as he came under fire in a united Opposition attack over some of his previous incorrect answers on Maori broadcasting funding agency Te Mangai Paho.

Mr Horomia was in so much difficulty that between answering questions, Prime Minister Helen Clark had a quiet word to him and he disappeared into the lobby, evidently to be coached by Leader of the House Michael Cullen.

Adding to the pressure on Mr Horomia is a new rule at question time which allows parties to pile their questions on to vulnerable ministers, rather than spreading them as they had to do before.

The pressure on Mr Horomia is not expected to blow over quickly.

In the short-term, associate minister John Tamihere may be asked to take a more leading role in the Te Mangai Paho issue, as he did a few weeks ago.

But it could be a long-term problem. National's Murray McCully has vowed to keep the heat on Mr Horomia over another issue - thousands of so-called capacity building grants given to Maori organisations over the past three years.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said "inverse racism" was operating because Helen Clark would not tolerate the same standard from a non-Maori minister.

Yesterday's debacle was centred on incorrect answers Mr Horomia had supplied to MPs, mainly Act's Rodney Hide, about funding approvals Te Mangai Paho made for Maori Sports Casting International.

MPs spent half an hour trying to establish when Mr Horomia found out his answers had been wrong.

Mr Horomia's answers, 200 of them, had been supplied to him by officials.

But after the release of a Treasury-led review into the sports caster's funding - and the role of a convicted fraudster formerly employed by Te Mangai Paho - it was clear some of the answers had been wrong.

For example, the details of the value of approved funding to the sports caster in response to written parliamentary question 253 turned out to be six contracts short - and more than $170,000 short.

Mr Horomia lodged five corrected answers yesterday, he told Parliament.

His chief official, Te Puni Kokiri chief executive Leith Comer, told reporters on May 30 he had apologised to Mr Horomia for the incorrect answers - though officials had believed they were correct at the time of giving them.

Mr Hide, Mr Peters and Mr McCully tried to find out when Mr Horomia knew that question 253, supplied on February 19, was wrong.

"Shortly after," was his original response, which sparked protracted objections by the Opposition.

Mr Horomia was invited by Speaker Jonathan Hunt to add more information to his answer.

Mr Horomia: "As I was about to say earlier on, that the timings of a lot of these questions of the two members who have been leading the entry on what dates, when and where, are well understood that I was to give the correct answers and were talked and discussed with on February earlier this year.

"Over a period of time there has information that hasn't been correct and I've lodged that correctly."

After half an hour it transpired that the date had been Monday, June 9, which puzzled many because Mr Comer had clearly apologised well before then.

After being coached in the lobby, Mr Horomia was able to explain that when Mr Comer had made his apology he had not known Question 253 was incorrect.

However, Mr Horomia's answer on June 9 is still puzzling given that the Treasury-led review given to Mr Horomia on May 28 made it clear that some of his original answers were wrong.