'State Of The Nation' Biased

ACT New Zealand Maori Affairs Spokesman Stephen Franks tonight said that he would pursue a complaint against TV One, for lack of balance in its `State of the Nation' programme on the Treaty of Waitangi.

"The purported `fact statements', which flashed onscreen during the programme, were misleading," Mr Franks said.

"In particular:

• The 5.6 percent of New Zealand held as Maori freehold land implied a level of inequality that is not justified when account is taken of general land owned by Maori

• The claim that Treaty settlements represented a tiny percentage of actual losses must have assumed that current value of land lost was the true measure of loss, when much of it would have been sold for full value over a century ago had it not been wrongly taken - and it is unlikely that the proceeds would have been re-invested.

• The claim that Maori paid more in income tax than they received from tax funds, when the amounts reportedly received were only cash distributions and ignored twice as much in tax-paid services.

"The programme purported to exclude radicals - I doubt that TVNZ's definition of radical is shared by anyone outside its own politically correct ranks.

"If TVNZ does not take this complaint seriously, it will be pursued with the Broadcasting Standards Authority," Mr Franks said.

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