Editorial: Maori service troublesome good cause

The resignation of Derek Fox from the Maori Television Service is another dismaying setback for a project that is now so far behind schedule there must be serious concerns that there will ever be a return for the public outlay. Mr Fox says his departure is prompted by the "bruising and brutal" task of defending the project lately rather than a female worker's complaint, the investigation of which has ceased with his resignation.

"Every week," he said on TVNZ's Marae programme, "some cowardly mongrel in the Parliament of New Zealand decides he can beat up on Derek Fox ... ", and there was "a feeding frenzy from time to time in the newspapers". It is hard to believe that political controversy and publicity are too much for someone who has spent a career in the spotlight and was planning to form a political party until the Government invited him to start a dedicated Maori language television channel.

It would be less of a surprise if Mr Fox had blamed his departure on frustrations caused by the Government's role in technical decisions about the channel transmission. Last week, for example, Sky Television offered to carry the Maori Television Service on one of Sky's channels to eliminate likely interference with other signals. It sounds an eminently sensible arrangement, but the Government has yet to approve it. And with the state-owned transmitter, Broadcast Communications Ltd, also bidding to carry the Maori Television Service, the prospects of a Sky deal may not be high. The Government is said to want to keep the Maori service within the "public broadcasting family".

Ideological limitations of that kind cannot be helping the project, nor can the loss of a staff member of the calibre of Hone Edwards, lured to TVNZ to be an adviser on Maori issues. Mr Fox could be forgiven if he quietly believes that Mr Edwards is more valuable in the position he is leaving, commissioner of programming for the dedicated channel, than he is likely to be as some sort of charter-meister for TVNZ.

But Mr Fox has uttered not a word against the Government's contribution to his troubles. And Prime Minister Helen Clark paid generous tribute to him on his resignation, saying, "I personally think Derek is a loss and I've described him on many occasions as the pre-eminent Maori television journalist of his generation."

Be that as it may, there is not much to show for two years of work. When the Government announced the Maori Television Service in July 2001, it confidently expected the channel to begin broadcasting free-to-air throughout the country by June last year. But by last June, worrying signs were appearing. The company was said to be close to signing a lease of premium real estate at the Viaduct Harbour for its studios and the credentials of its newly appointed chief executive, Canadian John Davy, had been exposed by the Herald.

Davy was dismissed in April last year. It took until February to appoint a replacement, Mr Fox, who moved from the chairman's seat to be chief executive at a base salary of $144,000 a year. At the same time, the company's operating grant from the Government was almost doubled to nearly $13 million a year. By the time of Mr Fox's resignation this month, the only progress the board could claim was that key management positions had been filled, the company was almost ready to start constructing a studio and 1100 hours of programming had been made.

Act MP Rodney Hide has called for the Auditor-General to investigate the $70 million spent over the past four years on Maori language television. It is a good cause, but it is proving more troublesome than anybody predicted. If a stand-along channel is too ambitious, those involved should have the sense to say so. The money could then be better spent entirely on sub-titled Maori language programmes available to everyone.