Jim Mather: Finance spokesman needs to get with the programme

When asked in the Herald of August 20: How much will you save from these baseline reviews to pay for proposed tax cuts? the National Party Finance Spokesperson, John Key, said he could not provide a number. But he provided an example: Maori TV, with the clear implication that it represented inefficient use of Government expenditure.

A number that may be relevant to Mr Key is $11 million, that being the annual cost of managing and operating a world-class indigenous TV channel tasked with protecting key elements of our cultural heritage.

A further $16 million is allocated by Te Mangai Paho primarily to fund in-house production of programmes, but there is no long-term certainty associated with this funding and it is negotiated year by year.

Mr Key also erroneously claimed that Maori TV was in a "bidding war and paying more for its staff than TVNZ is paying for the same staff".

That was news to me, as the CEO of Maori TV. His statement clearly indicates Mr Key is either misinformed or unaware of the facts.

Mr Key further challenges anyone to explain why Maori TV could not have been established as a division of TVNZ; his rationale being that "production costs and overheads would have been significantly lower". I was surprised by this simplistic approach as it disregards accepted business practice that being part of a large corporation does not automatically equate to greater efficiencies.

Moreover, Mr Key's cost-saving suggestions of being able to "transfer staff and programming which you may want to dub over into te reo" displays little understanding of our statutory objectives of revitalising the Maori language and culture.

Our strategy is not to regurgitate mainstream television programmes into the Maori language, but rather to provide niche programming that has strong public value which accurately reflects our uniqueness as New Zealanders.

Very few of the operational synergies Mr Key alludes to exist. Mr Key is likely to be unaware that primarily because of our tight financial constraints, each year Maori TV produces more than 600 hours of new programmes in-house. As any member of the Maori independent production community will attest, our self-imposed cap on hourly production budgets is tens of thousands of dollars below that of TVNZ and the other commercial broadcasters.

Our independence as a stand-alone TV channel allows us to operate our business efficiently and in a manner that is not superseded by competing commercial and charter imperatives.

I also wish to address Mr Key's musings about "Maori TV - let's assume you want to have it". A recent poll conducted by TNS Research found of the 339 Maori respondents, 98 per cent considered the channel should be a permanent part of the broadcasting landscape. More significantly, a similar number of non-Maori respondents, 84 per cent, supported Maori TV's role as a permanent broadcaster.

Such statistics indicate that our programming strategy is fulfilling the needs of a wide audience and that we offer a relevant alternative to commercial TV and its steady diet of overseas soaps, reality programmes and cop shows.

A relevant question for Mr Key would have been, "Should the performance of Maori Television be based solely on ratings?" Although our ratings continue to grow, are there not other qualitative measures by which Maori TV should be judged? Given that our statutory obligations are to revitalise and normalise te reo and tikanga Maori, should these factors not form the basis of our progress?

I am at least thankful that Mr Key did not resuscitate National's earlier proposal of buying several hours of prime-time space on TVNZ to broadcast television programmes on a daily basis in te reo Maori.

I am surprised that such a commercially unsustainable option was ever seriously considered as an alternative to Maori TV. That option would be an ill-conceived attempt to meet the Crown's statutory obligations to Maori broadcasting.

Perhaps the only comment made by Mr Key in the Herald article that I agree with, albeit for different reasons, is that the Maori TV model could be run "through many other parts of the state sector".

I am confident that other organisations could learn plenty from our commitment to our organisational objectives, fiscal responsibility and prudent management.

Ma ratou, ma matou, ma koutou, ma tatou.

* Jim Mather is CEO/Tahuhu Rangapu Maori Television.