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Friday, July 10, 2009

Poke in the eye for Jackson show

Television New Zealand has axed its ground-breaking talk show Eye to Eye.

The show, which provided a post-Parliamentary soapbox for former Alliance MP Willie Jackson, was a rare incursion by maintream television into te ao Maori.

Mr Jackson says he's disappointed its six year run was ended by an email to the producers, rather than the network sitting down and talking about future options.

“We got the shove because basically they didn’t want to come up with any strategy in terms of getting us into prime time. They never saw us as a prime time show even though so many people over the years thought it would be worth a shot at prime time. It doesn’t have to be me but we deserve a chance in the prime time hours. We shouldn’t be ghettoized forever on a Sunday morning,” Mr Jackson says.

He tried to offer a different view of Maori than Television New Zealand was giving in its own programmes.

TURIA HOPEFUL ON INDIGENOUS DECLARATION

Maori party co-leader Tariana Turia is confident of winning Government support for the declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.

Deputy prime minister Bill English has revealed the government is debating what caveats it might want to insert in any endorsement of the document.

Mrs Turia says the declaration, which the previously Labour government voted against when it came before the United Nations General Assemby two years ago, doesn't tell countries what to do.

Instead it sets out aspirations for dealing with indigenous populations.

“It does give some protections to indigenous people and I would hope things kike the foreshore and seabed, the Auckland city issue, that those things wouldn’t happen without people being fully consulted on them before it takes place,” Mrs Turia says.

Australia and Canada have also reconsidered their votes against the declaration.

MARAE COMFORTABLE SPACE TO SUBMIT TO SELECT COMMITTEE

The chair of a special parliamentary committee wants to see more hearings on marae.

The Maori subcommittee of the Auckland governance select committee is at Hoani Waititi Marae in Waitakere City today, after sittings at Orakei and Te Puea Marae.

National MP Tau Henare by having a mix of formal submissions and an open forum, the committee has given a wider range of people a chance to express themselves.

“We've got what people would have said anyway in a normal select committee process but what we’ve got is a bit of freedom. It’s more about making people comfortable in the knowledge they can stand and deliver on their own patch. I’ve loved it. I think it’s a great innovation and I think select committees should do more of it,” Mr Henare says.

Maori seem united that they want some sort of Maori representation on the Auckland super-city council, but there is no consensus on what it should be.

CROWN FOREST RENTAL TRUST ACCOUNTS SHOW VALUE

The central North Island Treelord settlement has pruned the balance sheet of the body that funds research and negotiation of forestry claims.

In its latest report to its Crown and Maori appointors, the Crown Forest Rental Trust has revealed that in the year to March spending on claimants increased 80 percent to $31 million.

Of that $8 million went to CNI and Urewera claimants, who are sharing $280 million in accumulated forest rentals.

Chief executive Ben Dalton says the 20-year-old trust has waited a long time for an opportunity like the CNI settlement, and its people and systems were up to the challenge.

“The whole purpose of the trust is to spend the interest of those accumulated rentals to assist those Maori to get their claims heard or negotiated. The CNI gave us our biggest opportunity and Dr Cullen and Tumu te Heuheu getting together and showing the leadership that was required, it basically was an opportunity we couldn’t afford not to assist with,” Mr Dalton says.

In future the trust will run at a deficit, but it has the funding set aside to resource the remaining forestry claims.

WAITANGI TRIBUNAL VENUE FOR SUPER CITY ARGUMENTS

A representative of an Auckland mana whenua iwi says the government should refer the Auckland super-city bill to the Waitangi Tribunal for guidance.

Eru Thompson has lodged a claim to the tribunal on behalf of Waiohua over the Government's rejection of the recommendation from the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance that there be three Maori seats on an Auckland council, including two for mana whenua.

He says it's within the powers of select committee hearing submissions on the bill to suggest such a referral.

Eru Thompson will present Waiohua's submission to the select committee's Maori subcommittee, which is sitting today at Hoani Waititi Marae in west Auckland.

GLASS ARTIST PUSHED BY PIRATES TO KEEP INNOVATING

A Whangarei designer says pirates and forgers are forcing him to constantly come up with new work.

Monty Kirkman runs Maori Boy Glass, which makes giftware with Maori patterns embedded beween sheets of glass.

He says the appearance of his designs on coffee cups imported from China shows how easy it is for people with digital cameras to take advantage of what he shows at craft fairs.

1 Comments:

Blogger Tee said...

Willie Jackson was a poor facilitator who allowed participants to shout across one another so the viewer could not follow 'the debate'. The Maori participants were the worst, instead of debating they argued and thought they were very funny. In the end it was all a meaningless vehicle for Jackson to keep himself in the public arena. I'm glad they are not wasting money on it.

2:56 pm  

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