Whakaata Māori's building won a New Zealand Institute of Architects award. Photo / Supplied
A panel of MPs from across Parliament are urging the Government to increase funding for broadcaster Whakaata Māori amid warnings wider cuts across the Māori media sector will be “catastrophic”.
The final report from the Parliamentary Māori Affairs select committee said the current funding level for the broadcaster was a “concern” particularly when considering “the value of te reo Māori as a taonga for the nation”.
Whakaata Māori’s budget is set to be reduced: around $10 million in temporary Crown funding will be phased out over the next two years. Meanwhile, baseline funding has remained largely around the same level since 2008 and has not been adjusted for inflation.
The Government said it acknowledged the important role the outlet played in producing Māori content for New Zealanders and was considering its options.
Whakaata Māori – or Māori Television – produces and runs te reo, bilingual and English shows and news bulletins, and broadcasts live events like Te Matatini kapa haka nationals. Whakaata Māori executives told the select committee it had made “significant changes” to its operating model including cutting 45 jobs and shifting to a digital-first approach.
The committee highlighted independent analysis by Social Ventures Australia and commissioned by Whakaata Māori which found for every dollar invested in the organisation, the social value returned was more than two dollars. The panel also highlighted a report from an Auditor-General appointed auditor who graded the broadcaster’s financial management as “very good” and made no recommendations for improvement.
Executives from Whakaata Māori told the committee a previous Minister of Māori Development had committed to increasing its baseline funding on completion of a sector-wide review but no increase had taken place yet.
That previous minister, Labour’s Willie Jackson, disputes this characterisation of the situation, saying the funding was never promised but he had made “every effort” to get the time-limited funding baselined.
He told the Herald “first of all you have to get money into the sector” and sometimes the easiest way to do that was by getting time-limited funding then trying to get that funding baselined later down the track.
Jackson said between 2020 and 2023, the previous Labour Government had put around $100 million into Māori broadcasting.
The report said: “Whakaata Māori and the rest of the Māori language sector have waited a long time as successive governments have reviewed the sector.”
In that time, Whakaata Māori had worked hard to achieve “excellent results” within the constraints of its budget.
“We encourage the Government to give serious consideration to the numerous reviews and commit to increasing funding to Whakaata Māori.”
Whakaata Māori’s revenue is largely made up of Crown funding ($48.56m in 2024-25) as well as some funding from other sources including Te Māngai Pāho (the Māori Broadcasting Funding Agency) and advertising. In December, executives from Te Māngai Pāho told the committee they were facing a 25% funding cut which would have serious trickle-down impacts on the wider Māori media sector.
“That is 25% of producers, talent all within those programmes, iwi radio, a lot of rurally based kaimahi [staff] without a job,” Te Māngai Pāho board chair Reikura Kahi said.
“Losing the talent and losing the producers who are te reo Māori fluent speakers, it’s a huge loss. We do need to make sure we work together with the sector to make sure the loss is not catastrophic.”
Te Māngai Pāho chief executive Larry Parr told the committee along with the Whakaata Māori funding ending, and losing around $16m at his agency, the sum of time-limited funding being lost was around $27m.
“If you take $27m out of the Māori media sector, that’s going to be a challenge.”
National MP and committee member Greg Fleming told Te Māngai Pāho they had “laid out a very compelling case as to why the funding should stay where it is”.
In a statement, Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka said the Government acknowledged the important role Whakaata Māori played in promoting te reo Māori and producing indigenous content for audiences across the country.
“The current time-limited funding settings were put in place under the previous Government and are due to phase out.”
Potaka said the Government was aware of the pressures that created and understood the value of greater certainty for organisations.
“We are working through options carefully, with a focus on responsible, disciplined investment that supports the long-term sustainability of Māori language and content.”
The select committee was made up of a mix of chair and National MP David MacLeod, Green Party MPs Steve Abel and Georgie Dansey, National’s Greg Fleming, Paulo Garcia, Rima Nakhle and Dana Kirkpatrick, Te Pāti Māori MP Oriini Kaipara, and Labour MPs Adrian Rurawhe and Jan Tinetti.
Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.