An independent panel (Te Kāhui o Māhutonga) was selected by the responsible Ministers in May 2008. The panel of three people have expertise in: Māori language revitalisation; the television industry in the New Zealand context; and broadcasting legislation.

The three panel members are Tainui Stephens (Chair), Hone Edwards and Jane Huria.

Tainui Stephens (Te Rarawa)

Tainui is an independent producer, director, executive producer, writer, and sometime presenter. He started his broadcasting career with Television One’s Koha in 1984. Since then, some of his work has included Waka Huia, Marae, Māori Battalion March To Victory, When The Haka Became Boogie, The New Zealand Wars, Mai Time, He Whare Kōrero, Anzac Day: Nā Rātou Mō Tātou, and Bub & Nen.

In 2002 Tainui’s first short film as a director The Hill, was selected for the Sundance and Berlin festivals. He was a producer for the Vincent Ward feature films River Queen and Rain Of The Children. He is the writer and director of the recently screened feature documentary on Iritana Tāwhiwhirangi, Let My Whakapapa Speak. He is the Māori advisor to New Zealand On Air, and a board member of the New Zealand Film Commission. His company Pito One Productions is based in Ngāruawāhia.

Hone Edwards (Ngāi Hikairo)

Hone has a broadcasting background spanning 25 years since he first joined Television New Zealand as a journalist. He further trained in production as a field director, studio director, producer, executive producer and presenter. Hone won the biennial Commonwealth Relations Trust Bursary in 1996 allowing him to carry out a comparative study of minority language television in the United Kingdom and Spain.

He later returned to New Zealand to co-produce the award winning children’s programme, Pūkana eventually leaving the field of television production to join the senior executive team at Television New Zealand in 2003 responsible for their Māori content and culture under the TVNZ Charter. Hone is now the Communications Manager for the Tainui group entity, the Office of King Tuheitia as well as the Board of the Kohanga Reo National Trust. Hone was born and raised in Kawhia and educated at Kings College.

Jane Huria (Ngāi Tahu, from Ngāi Tuahuriri)

Jane has a commercial background in law, insurance, market research and the financial markets. She now works in the area of governance and strategic review. Jane is a partner in HSR Governance Limited, a governance consultancy which was set up in 1999 and operates from Christchurch. Jane serves on a number of boards, is a lay member of the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal and a member of the Management Advisory Group for the Secretary of Treasury. She develops and teaches public and in house governance courses for the Institute of Directors in New Zealand, the Tertiary Education Commission (for University, Polytechnic and Wananga councils) and SPARC (for sport and recreation organisations).

Last modified: 22/12/2008