SOLO-NZ Press Release:

More Graft on the Mordi Gravy-Train?

July 5, 2008

Perhaps it's time TVNZ's current affairs programme Eye to Eye was renamed Lie to Lie, according to SOLO Principal Lindsay Perigo.

Himself a former TV current affairs anchor, Perigo is both bemused and appalled at his treatment by Eye to Eye this week.

"Earlier in the week I was confirmed to appear on today's programme, pre-recorded on Friday, featuring Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia, among others, about the Central North Island forests treaty settlement, the so-called Treelords deal.

"I asked the programme's researcher what, as she understood it, were the injustices Treelords ostensibly remedied, since neither Treaty Minister Michael Cullen nor chief iwi negotiator Tumu te Heuheu had specified these in their speeches celebrating the deal ... the biggest ever struck in the Treaty settlements process at a time when Labour is desperate for the Maori vote.

"The researcher told me she didn't know, and, further, all her efforts to find out had been fruitless. The Waitangi Tribunal itself, she told me, had refused to disclose this information. I observed that my own understanding was there had been nothing untoward at all in the original selling of the relevant areas to the Crown, where, decades later, forests had been planted under the auspices of the State Forest Service.

"I made it clear that, on the programme, I'd be asking Minister Horomia to explain just what the historical injustices were.

"The researcher told me this was a good idea, and meanwhile I should stand by for the customary pre-programme telephone interview and confirmation of flight arrangements.

"When two days went by with neither of these occurring, I became suspicious. I left messages on unanswered telephones, and eventually on Friday morning, the day of the pre-record, was rung by a programme staffer who confirmed that I had been dumped but couldn't tell me why.

"Now, I understand that a television programme is free to invite and disinvite whomever it pleases. But to invite and confirm a guest, then to disinvite him without telling him is unprofessional. To disinvite him in order to spare a cabinet minister from being asked to account for a possible $400 million rip-off is more than unprofessional; it's sinister. Eye to Eye owes the taxpayers who fund it an explanation.

"In the event, Horomia appeared with another Labour politician against two National politicians, and the four of them argued as to which party had done more for Maori. The propriety or otherwise of the Treelords deal wasn't even raised. Taxpayers remain in the dark as to what things they didn't do are being used as an excuse to rob them this time.

"As it happens, I'm all in favour of getting the state out of things that shouldn't be its concern, such as forestry. But the proper way to privatise state forests is to give every taxpaying New Zealander, not just opportunistic minorities on a grievance gravy-train, the right to sell his supposed share in them," Perigo concludes.

Lindsay Perigo 021 255 8715

SOLO SOLOPassion.com

Highlighting emphasis added by ONZF.

To read the authentic history about the original sale to the Crown in 1879 CLICK HERE