Te Taura Whiri

Submission on Radio Frequency Auction: 2.3GHz and 2.5 GHz Bands

1. This submission is from Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, PO Box 411, Wellington, ph 04-4710244.
2. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori (The Māori Language Commission) is a Commission established under the authority of the Māori Language Act 1987. Its aim is to promote, protect and maintain the Māori language, and, in particular its use as a living language and as an ordinary means of communication.
3. Māori was declared an official language of New Zealand through the Māori Language Act 1987. It has also been recognised as being a taonga through Article II of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
   

Māori Interests

What provision should be made regarding allocation of spectrum in the 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands for use for Māori (i.e. Māori as service consumers, or in the interests of Māori language and culture)?

Māori Language Regeneration

4. Māori broadcasting, including radio, television and wireless broadband applications is an important medium to support Māori language regeneration.
5. Māori radio and television, in particular, currently support Māori language regeneration by:

• providing Māori language content which has language acquisition benefits for Māori language learners;
• enabling access to Māori language role models;
• enabling access to local level content that reflects community needs and interests and dialect;
• promoting Māori language in important domains (homes);
• increasing critical awareness about the language;
• increasing status/perceived value of reo Māori; and
• normalising the language – the more frequently it is heard, the more it becomes an everyday/normal part of life.

6. Spectrum allocations are essential to ensure continued support for Māori language regeneration in this arena, and to ensure that the interests of Māori language and culture are not disadvantaged in favour of purely commercial interests.
   

Government’s Māori Language Strategy

7. Allocation of spectrum in the interests of Māori language and culture supports the goals of the Government’s Māori Language Strategy.
8. The Functions of Government in supporting Māori language regeneration include Māori language broadcasting, and the Government has an established function in supporting the growth of the Māori language through funding radio and television broadcasting in the Māori language. This function supports the increased use of the Māori language and the value accorded to the Māori language by all New Zealanders. (Māori Language Strategy 2003)
   

Future use of Spectrum

9. Technology is advancing rapidly and in the future there will potentially be multiple uses for spectrum, including radio, television, wireless broadband, cellular and remote rural uses.
10. For Māori language to thrive in modern contexts, it must be as accessible and usable as any other language. Hence we recommend the allocation of spectrum for Māori use so that we can be sure that there will be the opportunity to advance Māori language regeneration through the most modern of media.

Recommendations

11. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori recommends that:

• allocations of spectrum for Māori be made in the interests of Māori language and culture whenever an allocation of long term rights to spectrum is proposed, and
• allocations of spectrum for Māori be made in the interests of Māori language and culture in the 2.3 and 2.5 GHz bands.