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Leader's LetterMARCH 2005
Let's Focus on Maori SuccessesRecent newspaper coverage of some 'major events' in New Zealand gave me cause to reflect on the representation of Maori in the mainstream media. Ralph Norris, a New Zealander of Maori extraction, has just been appointed CEO to a major Australian bank. Michael Cambell, another New Zealander of Maori extraction, has just won the US Golf Open. And another group of New Zealanders of Maori extraction has just beaten the British and Irish Lions. Good news, good news, good news. And all achieved without the need to rely on the 'principles' of the Treaty of Waitangi. These are stories of outstanding achievement, but they highlighted an unfortunate fact. I cannot recall seeing too many Maori featured as success stories, and especially not in the business pages. But are these successes so unusual? If you read publications aimed at Maori readership, (and there are one or two), you will find articles galore on Maori successes in academia, business, the arts and sports. So it's not as if successful Maori aren't out there, and that there are no positive role models for our children. All too often the news about Maori is negative. Their place on the comparative social indicators is testament to this. Again, this is in spite of references to the undefined 'principles' of the Treaty of Waitangi referred to in legislation. These things are real, and end up as statistics that tell us all the bad news about the status of Maori. I guess they also sell newspapers, judging by the amount of space they command on a daily basis in most of them. I don't believe that anybody should accept that the place of Maori is on the bottom rungs of our social ladder, but if your only source of information was the newspaper, that's the overriding impression that you would get. I do not want to speculate on how much of the news is self-perpetuating, and I certainly don't believe that anything so simplistic can explain such a complex issue. However I do believe that in this media-saturated, information-exploding world of ours, the images that we see or hear, however subliminally, affect the perceptions we have of ourselves and of the world around us. I'd like to see more good news about Maori, because I know it's out there. And if you consider this in the context of the coverage, or lack of coverage, given to New Zealand First, you could easily conclude that our newspapers have a certain bias about them. These same newspapers will be falling over themselves to talk to New Zealand First after the election, when we will have our fair share of members, including Maori, in Parliament, and when we will be in a position to address Maori issues without reference to the 'principles' of the Treaty of Waitangi. Newspapers are in the business of telling us what the news is. I'd like to see a bit more of those journalistic values of balance, fairness and accuracy in the papers when it comes to Maori. I look forward to the day when I don't look twice in surprise at an article about Maori that is good news. Pita Paraone MP
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