Harawira warned over making money on flag

BY MICHAEL FIELD

Prime Minister John Key has bluntly warned outspoken MP Hone Harawira from making money off the Maori flag that is to be flown on Waitangi day.

Harawira's family trust is understood to have a financial interest in the tino rangatiratanga flag.

Speaking to reporters this afternoon Mr Key said making money off the flag was unacceptable.

"If either Hone Harawira or his family were to make money out of the tino rangatiratanga flag that would be utterly wrong," Mr Key said.

That would be a clear conflict of interest for him to make money off it.

"This is a flag we are flying on Waitangi day to celebrate unity and partnership between Maori and the Crown, nor for the Harawiras to make money."

Mr Key said the government's legal advice was that a Harawira family trust was seeking to copyright the flag but their understanding was that it could not be copyrighted.

Mr Key said Mr Harawira had to be "very careful" that there was no perception of a conflict of interest or that he was feathering his own nest.

"New Zealanders have absolutely no appetite for that," Mr Key said.

He said he would fly the tino rangatiratanga flag at his official residency at Premier House in Wellington.

As for the main New Zealand flag, Mr Key said his government did not have on its agenda any plans to change it.

The Mount Maunganui woman who designed the Tino Rangatiratanga flag says the decision to copyright it is not about money.

Linda Munn also disputed accusations that embattled Maori Party MP Hone Harawira and his family were "cashing in" on their role in the copyrighting process of the flag.

"I'm stepping up and taking ownership. I was worried it would be taken away. But people are only talking about the money aspect, they are forgetting what it symbolises," she told Tauranga website sunlive.co.nz.

"It's not about money. It's about protecting it. It belongs to us.

"It's to protect it and keep it in New Zealand. We have found a lot of our designs from here have been taken away overseas," she said.

Most of the revenue generated after the flag was copyrighted, which Ms Munn expected would be complete within a year, would go into a trust.

About eight trustees would be appointed to the trust and Ms Munn said she would personally ensure the trust's accounts were transparent so the public knew where the money was being spent.

Ms Munn designed the Tino Rangatiratanga flag with Jan Dobson and Hiraina Marsden about 30 years ago and is the only surviving member of the trio.

She said she and her family, along with the families of the other two designers, would receive some portion of the flag's profits but was adamant the Harawira family would not receive any money.

Hone Harawira and his wife Hilda were advising her on the copyrighting process, she said.

"I find making money tacky. I find the whole money making thing quite dirty and they would never ask for anything."

She said the trust would help establish community initiatives such as education scholarships, a marae-based art school for all New Zealanders and a programme teaching Maori and New Zealand culture.

"This is the dream we've always had. I will make sure this vision for the community is seen through," Ms Munn said.

Mr Harawira said yesterday the trust was intended to benefit the families of the flag's designers and he had withdrawn from the process because of the apparent conflict of interest.

He said he had told the families of the designers to hire a lawyer to set up the trust.

Mr Harawira made his comments after TV One News reported last night that Hilda Harawira planned to copyright the flag with Ms Munn and make money from royalties.

With NZPA

- © Fairfax NZ News