Mana leader Hone Harawira says there is no support in Maori language circles for a radical overhaul of the sector.

Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples wants to make his political swansong a law change to bring the Maori broadcast funding agency Te Mangai Paho and language commission Te Taura Whiri I Te Reo Maori, under a single board.

Mr Harawira says people have had a chance now to consider the plan, and they don’t want it.

"I’m certainly not hearing it come from any of the Maori radio stations, Im not hearing it come from Maori Television who gets funded from Te Mangai Paho, Im not hearing the minister say, in fact what I should have done is lifted Taura Whiri's budget in terms of the Maori language allocation. In fact he has not increased the budget at all. He's putting up something which has no capacity to succeed and because the reo is such an important taonga, best we put it off and leave it for another day," he says.

Hone Harawira says the changes are supposed to return control of language strategy to iwi, but the real owners are those who make the effort to learn and use it, not corporate iwi who have other priorities.

FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH HONE HARAWIRA CLICK ON THE LINK