Māori media got a $40m boost in Budget 2022, following a similar increase to fund more content and jobs last year. But where is the strategic review of the Māori media sector that kicked off nearly four years ago?
Maori development minister Willie Jackson talking to TVNZ Marae host Miriama Kamo last weekend ahead of the Budget. Photo: TVNZ Marae
The Māori Media Sector Shift review was launched in 2018 by the Māori Development minister at the time, Nanaia Mahuta.
In a document called 'Māori media sector: shift options' published in 2020 she recommended a one-stop-shop for Māori broadcast news, an idea that pleased few in the sector - including her own deputy minister Willie Jackson.
“I'm on record as saying: “Hang on. How can Pākehā get all the news bulletins and Māori always have to rationalise theirs? I stand by that now,” he told Radio Waatea at the time it was first suggested.
After the last election, he took over as Māori development minister and started the whole process again by appointing a new Māori Broadcasting Advisory Panel to rethink it all.
On TVNZ’s Marae last weekend, host Miriama Kamo asked Willie Jackson for details of the Māori Media Sector Shift Review she said had been timed for the Budget.
“It’s been a lot of work - in tandem with Kris Faafoi and public media. I’m happy with what our team has done and I think our people will be happy,” he said.
Budget 2022 came and went with no review made public - but it did have a big boost for Māori media: an additional $40 million in 2022/23 and 2023/24 "to position the Māori Media Sector for the future."
The includes $32 million dollars to Te Māngai Pāho, the Māori Broadcast funding agency - and $8m to Whakaata Māori - Māori Television - over the next two years. This is mostly for "new content reflecting Māori language, culture, stories and perspectives," according to the Budget 2022 summary, but also "iwi media collaboration in news and current affairs" and the "development of a workforce strategy."
The minister praised the experts who advised on the Māori Media Advisory Group for getting the funding boost across the line and he told the New Zealand Herald more details about how this will be spent will come next week.
That sounds similar to Budget 2021, which allocated $42 million over four years "to build a sustainable Māori media sector that will continue to develop innovative local Māori media content in collaboration with independent producers, Māori Television and iwi radio stations."
Back then Radio Waatea asked advisory group chair Dr Ella Henry:“When will your report be handed to the Minister?
“We are due to do so in June. The clock is ticking. But we are excited to be part of what we see as a new direction for the future,” Dr Henry replied.
But almost one year on, there’s still no Māori Media Sector Shift Review report on Te Puni Kokiri’s website.
Dr Henry - also an Associate Professor at AUT's Business School - stepped down as chair after the panel’s first term ended in July.
"I know that they continued to meet for many more months after that but I have not seen a report as an outcome,” she told Mediawatch.
“I can see why the report may have been delayed by bigger decisions that were going on in other parts of the media. Much of the policy development is contingent upon what's going on in the wider media community. Combining RNZ and TVNZ is going to have implications for Māori media and Māori broadcasting,” she said.
$82m in additional funding for content and career development is a substantial boost from the past two Budgets, even without a ‘sector shift’ strategy to go with it.
“I will always applaud additional funding towards anything in Māori media. A number of Māori production community representatives were saddened that Māori organisations and TMP did not get equal support out of the COVID funding during the lockdown period. I do hope this additional funding will go some way to rebuilding capacity that has been damaged by the last few years of the virus,” she said.
“Parts of that funding will go into some of the newer and more innovative broadcasting and media strategies that are open to Māori storytellers - like gaming, digital and the utilization of platforms like Twitter and Facebook and TikTok. (These) could provide really useful entryways for Māori into broadcasting and media,” she said.
“I know it gets bagged a lot, but I think that TikTok in particular, but Facebook also, are are really interesting places for people to experiment, as Māori are already present on these platforms,” she said.
The 21 stations the te Whakaruruhau - the iwi radio network - offer unique local services run on the smell of an oily rag.
“Look around the country at the different iwi channels, and the urban Māori ones. They could all desperately do with better funding for a more cohesive approach to news delivery and dissemination. But I have to tip my hat to what iwi are managing to achieve - and I'd like to think that a chunk of improved funding is going towards them,” she told Mediawatch.
