Hide claims broadcast never took place

By AUDREY YOUNG political editor

Te Mangai Paho approved payment for a non-existent Maori sports commentary of the Perth rugby clash between Australia and New Zealand Maori, Act MP Rodney Hide told Parliament yesterday.

But Sky says it ran the broadcast in question.

Maori Sports Casting International was paid $18,000 for the three-match tour but did not cover the clash with the Wallabies last June, Mr Hide said.

Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia said Te Mangai Paho had been advised by Sky Television that a broadcast did take place.

But he added that acting Te Mangai Paho board chairman Wira Gardiner would follow up any breach of contract.

Sky's director of communication, Tony O'Brien, said last night that the broadcast from Perth did take place. He had checked the logs to make sure there had been no technical problems.

And producer Wayne Leonard had confirmed that Hemana Waaka, managing director of Maori Sports Casting International, and one other commentator had provided the commentary.

Aspects of the Maori tour were covered in the Treasury-led review into a conflict of interest between Maori Sports Casting International and Te Mangai Paho's former radio manager, Tame Te Rangi, who provided some of the commentary.

Mr Te Rangi recommended funding for the Australian tour just one week before the first game.

But Te Mangai Paho chief executive Trevor Moeke declined leave for Mr Te Rangi to join the tour and formally ordered him to cease his work with Maori Sports Casting International.

Mr Hide said Mr Waaka had picked up his brother DJ in Brisbane for the Maori tour.

National MP Katherine Rich called for a review of all Te Mangai Paho's funding decisions for the past three years.

She also sought to show discrepancies between a ministerial answer to a question about the Maori Television Service and what was written in a letter by disgraced former chief executive officer John Davy.

In a written answer in May last year, Mr Horomia told Mrs Rich that the Carbine Group had not been selected to develop the channel's new studio and that no contract had been entered into.

Mrs Rich yesterday tabled an April letter from Davy, later jailed for fraudulently misrepresenting his CV, to Patrick McPhee of the Carbine Group, saying the MTS board "have accepted Carbine's broadcast solution".

It is understood that after Davy's background was exposed and businessman Wayne Walden took over temporary management of the service, the deal was ditched.