Exposed

After a promising start , NZ’s first Maori TV channel has become a cultural embarrass

ment, undermined by politics,

greed and $9O boxer shorts By lulia Leilua The truth has seemed stranger than fiction with the drama of Aotearoa TV. What was supposed to have been a pioneering vehicle for Maori culture, ended up a political and cultural embarrassment for the Maori.

Aoteraoa TV was the pilot for the first Maori television channel in New Zealand which began in May, last year.

Its five directors were the successful ten derers for the channel’s contract with Te Mangai Paaho, a publicly funded Maori broadcasting agency set up by the min istry of commerce.

With SNZ2.6 million (SUSI. 7 mil

lion) from Te Mangai Paaho, Aotearoa TV broadcast to various parts of Auckland. The whole thing brimmed with promise and a young team of starry eyed Maori. Eighty per cent of its pro gramming was in the Maori language, part of the contractual agreement with Te Managai Paaho. Current affairs, news, children’s programmes, sport and enter tainment were packaged into a five-hour slot each night. Their potential audience was 60,000, a good size to cut their teeth

on. With all the good intentions there to make quality Maori programming, how did it become a controversial subject, debated and even ridiculed by the public and politicians for weeks? When the flak hit the fan later, many supporters and opponents of the station both agreed the staff had more than fulfilled their con tract.

But, as Puhi Rangiaho, the chief executive and one of the directors of Aoteraroa TV, aptly put it, “politics and greed” were the cause of Aotearoa TV’s demise.

First, there were links to the Cook Islands Winebox scandal. It involved the suspect purchase and sale of Aotearoa’s buildings with two ex-European Pacific executives, and Aotearoa TV director Derek Burns. Under a clause in the pur chase agreement with Aotearoa TV, the

sale price would be inflated from

Snzboo,Ooo ($U5527,000) - The

amount originally paid - to nearly SNZ2 million (SUSI. 3 million) if more public funding was received from Te Mangai Paaho. Then came news of a SNZ 16,000 (SUS 10,500) clothes shopping spree with ex-director and NZ First MP

Tukuoroirangi Morgan and current

director Morehu McDonald - using Aotearoa TV funds. Tukuoroirangi’s

most prominent purchase that will surley

mark the spot for him in New Zealand was a pair of SNZ9O (SUS6O) boxer shorts. Later, he was to justify the pur chase saying it was part of his contract as a presenter for Aotearoa TV to have a clothing allowance. But the shopping spree took place on September 30, a month after he said he resigned.

Sadly for Aotearoa TV staff, and the reputation of Maori broadcasting, the personal agendas of those few spoilt it for the rest. Such blatant misuse of tax

payers’ money brought a huge nation

wide outcry. The pressure on Winston Peters and Jim Bolger, the captains of the coalition government, to close the chan nel was enormous.

Not only did the 70 staff lose their jobs after a SNZ4-million (SUS2.6-mil lion) cash injection was denied (and just after they were approved it by cabinet), but the question of Maori broadcast and a permanent Maori channel has now become a public sore point which politi cians might try to sort out.

Central to the debate is the involve ment of NZ First with Aotearoa TV, par ticularly Western Maori MP Morgan and the Maori affairs minister, Tau Henare.

Labour leader Helen Clark accused NZ First of cronyism with Aotearoa TV and that Henare and the minister of com munications, Maurice Williamson, hur ried the SNZ4-million funding approval through cabinet without adopting the correct procedures. She and other party members claimed the station had been used by Morgan, a former director and producer of the company, to promote his campaign for the Western Maori seat and for his party.

Allegations also came out about the purchase of a SNZ3OOO (SUSI9OO) dress by an Aotearoa TV director’s wife as well as 30 tickets for staff for a Michael Jackson concert priced at SNZ7S (SUSSO) per head.

Perhaps the biggest surprise for staff,

many who were working for SNZI6OO (SUSIOSS) or under a month, was that the directors were receiving the princely sum-of SNZIS,OOO (SUS99OO) a month.

In a company where resources were lim ited and staff worked overtime for noth ing, this came as a big blow.

Much of Labour’s vitriol has been

attributed to “sour grapes” at not being part of NZ First’s MMP coalition gov ernment. In the elections last year, NZ First took a clean sweep of the five Maori seats traditionally held by Labour, an indication that Maori have become disillusioned with Labour. No wonder then that Labour could hardly believe their luck at the mess Peters and his party found themselves in. Quick to fire ammunition at NZ First and the errant Morgan, Labour also had to be careful not to jump on the ‘Maori-bashing’ bandwagon which NZ First claims is behind all the controversy. Regaining their Maori support would be a major success for Labour, who have always relied on Maori and Pacific Island votes.

Despite all the allegations made against Morgan and Aotearoa TV, though, no concrete evidence was tabled in parliament. A mysterious recording of a suspicious conversation between two of the directors, Eric McPhee and Morehu McDonald, however, was leaked by Labour’s Trevor Mallard to the media. Mallard, who received the tape anonymously, claims the conversation unequivocally proves Morgan still has financial interests in the defunct station.

The increasing opinion from inside and outside parliament is that Morgan should step down from parliament.

When the revelations came out, everyone expected Morgan to vindicate himself. Throughout the whole affair, though, his silence was deafening - no interviews, no press releases ... nothing.

It wasn’t until his parliamentary maiden

speech in February, that Morgan eventu

ally spoke up. He made it clear that res ignation was not in his plans.

No direct reference was made to the Aotearoa TV debacle, except to say that never ever again would he be caught with his “pants down”. Much mileage

has been clocked up by local entrepreneurs who’ve cashed in on the

SNZ9O boxer shorts bought by Morgan.

But as one Australian political commen tator put it: “It’s not that much money.

Politicians all around the world are into a bit of corruption. Morgan’s not the first, and he certainly won’t be the last.

Besides, the money’s only minuscule compared to what happens in other countries.”

Clark has called for yet another inquiry into Morgan and Aotearoa TV’s management (on top of four others which were called for by the Ministry of Commerce, the Serious Fraud Office, Mallard with Act’s Derek Quigley and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters’ private investigation team). But as Peters seemed quite relieved to pronounce to Morgan’s hackers: “There is no evidence that anything illegal went on. Where’s your evidence to back up these allega tions? None of you have a shred of evi dence. If you can’t put up - shut up.”

Peters readily admits that the moral issues surrounding Morgan’s spending are questionable. And despite the call for Morgan to resign, Peters says he’ll back the errant MP 100 per cent.

Many have admired Morgan’s self assuredness in the past. As an ex-TVNZ and TV3 reporter/presenter, he was once voted the best-dressed man in New Zealand. He was groomed for political leadership by his elders from the Tainui tribe, and now stands as their MP for the Te Tai Hauauru or the Western Maori seat. The irony for Morgan is that his over-exacting of himself has backfired.

For his supporters, Morgan’s public

hammering has been watched with painful embarrassment for him. But, depite all that’s happened, one still gets the impression that he considers himself blameless.

In the meantime, 70 young Maori, many of whom are still unemployed, are wincing from being unwitting pawns in a political game and the target of ridicule and abuse from the nation. Williamson and Henare are now strategising a plan to set up a permanent Maori channel. The results are expected to be announced in June.

Perhaps the last word should go to one ex-Aotearoa staff member who says: “I have no regret at being part of some thing which could’ve been good. The whole issue of Maori TV is a lot bigger than money or jobs or underwear or pol itics. It’s a vehicle for our language and culture, and it’s not going to go away or die. A permanent Maori channel will happen, it’s just a matter of how, when and by whom. Better that we get rid of the deadwood now before we get too far down the road.” ■

Undercover shopping... Tukuoroirangi Morgan, once dubbed NZ’s best-dressed man, is in trouble over his extravagant shopping spree