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Labour MP Peeni Henare is welcoming comprehensive changes to the Maori Language (Te Reo Maori) Bill.
Maori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell this week got cabinet approval for a rewrite of the bill put up by his predecessor Dr Sir Pita Sharples, which would have put agencies like the Maori Language Commission and Maori broadcast funding agency under the control of a new iwi-dominated board, Te Matawai.
Under the changes Te Matawai will disburse funding for community-based initiatves now handled by Te Taura Whiri, but for now Te Mangai Paho will continue to oversee broadcast funding.
Mr Henare says parliament’s Maori affairs committee had serious reservations with the bill and pushed hard for changes.
"We look forward to debating it in the house and always a good thing when you can gain a bit of mana for te reo Maori and the bill be written in te reo Maori and that one be given precedence and if there is any caution it will be in the text around the Treaty of Waitangi and which one gains mana and which one doesn't and how do you interpret it, so those are some of the questions and challenges this country will face as the bill progresses," he says.
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