Media Release
24 January 2002

$1 Million For Six Bendy Lines.
Is That It?

New Zealand First Leader, Rt Hon Winston Peters, is wonder exactly where $1million went to in the design of the Maori-made logo, and what right Creative New Zealand think they have to attempt to register living organisms and an entire culture.

Mr Peters broke the story of the design in August last year, following a Parliamentary Question to Judith Tizard showing that the design had cost $831,000. Since that time the logo has been recently leaked to the media and has been recosted to over $1million.

“Anyone can see this is nothing but a rip-off. $1million for six lines? That’s $166666 per line. Someone is laughing all the way to the bank. Worse yet is the absurd assertions being made by bureaucrats that this will in some way help Maori, or advance the development of Maori.

“This is not about asserting Maori culture, this is about a small group of radical Maori who have managed to infiltrate the arts and have milked it for all it’s worth. Put quite simply it is a rip-off and every New Zealander, Maori and European should be outraged by this waste.

“When the rest of the world is developing, some Maori seem hell bent on returning to tribalism and the stone-age. It is unacceptable and an anathema to common law that a government agency should attempt to effectively copyright an entire culture, all plants, animals and organisms in the name of political correctness, when the rest of the world is advancing.

“This will not help a single unemployed Maori in Northland, the Bay of Plenty, the East Coast or in Auckland. It has made a few crafty Maori in Wellington very wealthy and has thrown another wedge in race relations,” concluded Mr Peters.

Enclosed: Press Statement of 2 August 2001

ENDS

Media Release

2 August 2001

GOVERNMENT SPENDS $831,000 ON MAORI-MADE LOGO

New Zealand First Leader, Rt Hon Winston Peters has released evidence that shows that the government intends to spend $831,000 on the ‘Maori-made’ logo.

An answer to a written question Judith Tizard said that The Government has already spent over $570,000, including $100,000 for two huis, $35,000 for legal fees and $150,000 for promotional materials. It also plans to spend $350,000 per annum to renew the logo.

“This Political correctness on a gross scale. At a time when schools and hospitals are being asked to tighten their belts the government has spent this obscene amount on a logo that will do nothing to improve the lot of Maori, “ said Mr Peters.

“ The amount spent is made even more bitter by the fact that recent legislation means the copyright for the logo will not be able to be enforced anyway.

“ I am calling on the Prime Minister, who is also Minister of Arts and Culture to veto this wreckless spending.

“When Labour was last in power they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a ‘Miha’ label that had all the levitation of a lead balloon,” concluded Mr Peters.

ENDS

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