Pakeha candidate in Tai Tokerau cries foul

The only Pakeha candidate in the Te Tai Tokerau by-election is claiming Maori Television and TVNZ are biased against him for not allowing him to take part in upcoming TV debates.
Both channels have defended their decisions, TVNZ saying it wanted best quality debate possible in the short space of time and Maori TV saying its polling supported its stance.
Voters in the byelection will get the chance to see three of the five candidates for the seat in a live television debate on Monday. As well, TVNZ's Marae Investigates intends to host a debate at its Auckland studios on June 17, again featuring just the same three candidates.
Maori Television's flagship current affairs show Native Affairs is hosting an invitation-only debate at the Northland College Hall at Kaikohe from 8.30pm to 9.30pm on Monday, which will be broadcast live.
The debate features the "three main candidates" contesting the June 25 byelection - Mana Party's Hone Harawira, Labour's Kelvin Davis and Maori Party's Solomon Tipene.
But Kelvyn Alp of the OURNZ Party - believed to be the first Pakeha to ever contest a Maori electorate - and Maki Herbert for Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party, are also standing.
Mr Alp said the fact he and Ms Herbert had been excluded from the debate showed bias from both TV channels.
"It's for the voters of Te Tai Tokerau to decide who the main candidates are on June 25, not television channels beforehand," Mr Alp said. "The public has the right to be fully informed before making the decision about who to represent them, but if they are not hearing from us about our common-sense policies then they can't make that informed decision."
He said there was a legal precedent for his concerns after United Future Leader Peter Dunne and Progressive Leader Jim Anderton forced TV3 to include them in a live leaders' debate before the last election after the channel didn't invite them to them take part.
TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards said the issue was a "hardy annual" that arose at every election. "It is always necessary for us to make a judgment call about how many people can usefully and productively be included in election debates," Ms Richards said.
"We have an obligation to present the best quality debate possible in the short space of time that is allocated, and we have no doubt that the interests of the community are best served by sticking to the three established parties/candidates."
Native Affairs producer Raewyn Rash said the show had a responsibility to provide current affairs with and from a Maori perspective.
Maori TV general manager of news and current affairs Te Anga Nathan said the decision to hold the debate was based on a Native Affairs poll carried out on its behalf by Baseline Consultancy. "This poll clearly showed the leading three candidates. Given the results of the poll we decided that a debate involving the three leading candidates was justified," Mr Nathan said.
"However, that is not to say that we are ignoring all other candidates. All candidates have been profiled on our news programme, Te Kaea, which has run a series of stories on the byelection campaign."