Wednesday 24 June 2009
RADIO NEW ZEALAND AMENDMENT BILL
First Reading
SUE KEDGLEY
The Green Party is delighted to support the Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill, because we are immensely relieved to know that there is still one broadcaster left in New Zealand that still has a public service charter which commits Radio New Zealand to serving the public interest—not commercial interests, but the public interest—and to providing independent, impartial, balanced news and current affairs.
Radio New Zealand is the only independent, commercial-free, public service broadcaster left in New Zealand whose sole purpose is to serve the public interest. And, isn't it fantastic to listen to the radio which is not interrupted every few minutes by commercials. We are relieved too that the Government has not yet seen fit to scrap Radio New Zealand's charter, as it has scrapped Television New Zealand's charter.
And of course we applaud the charter.
Who would not applaud a charter with the lofty goals of committing Radio New Zealand to provide independent, commercial-free broadcasting, and so on and so forth?
The Green Party also strongly supports Radio New Zealand, because we believe it is critical to the health of our democracy that we have broadcasters whose sole purpose is to serve the public interest; not to maximise the profits of shareholders, or to chase ratings and to schedule programmes according to how much advertising they will attract, but simply to serve the public interest.
It is extraordinary that we still have such a broadcaster left in New Zealand where we have the most unregulated broadcasting environment in the Western World. In a time of increasing concentration of media ownership into fewer and fewer hands, when virtually all of our media are in foreign ownership, and when we are seeing ever-greater convergence of newspapers, television, and radio operations, less and less diversity of opinion, and fewer and fewer independent sources of news and information, Radio New Zealand stands out as a veritable beacon as the only truly independent, commercial-free, public service broadcaster left in New Zealand, and thank heavens for that.
But the Green Party is concerned that although Radio New Zealand has a charter with lofty and admirable goals, successive Governments have not provided Radio New Zealand with the funding that it desperately needs to implement the charter.
This is the critical issue that we need to debate.
For what is the purpose of giving Radio New Zealand a lofty charter if the organisation is so cash-strapped that it cannot deliver on its charter goals?
In the 2007 or 2008 financial year, the then Minister of Broadcasting commissioned an independent review to determine the level of funding required for Radio New Zealand to maintain its services at current levels—that is, just to keep the organisation going. This review was carried out by independent consultants and it was agreed that the results of the review would form the basis for all future discussions with shareholding Ministers about the level of funding that was needed to maintain Radio New Zealand and its core services. So this is a critically important document that will allow the public to know whether, and by how much, Radio New Zealand is underfunded. The Green Party has been trying to get hold of this critically important document but the Government—the Minister—is refusing to release it under the Official Information Act, claiming that it is commercially sensitive.
What utter nonsense!
Radio New Zealand is a public service broadcaster so how can an assessment of its funding possibly be commercially sensitive?
We have gone to the Ombudsman asking for this document to be released because we think it is scandalous that this independent funding review is being kept secret.
The real reason for keeping it secret, we suspect—indeed, we know—is that this Government and the previous Government do not want the public to know that the independent review concluded that Radio New Zealand was underfunded by $7 million a year, we are informed by reliable sources.
The latest Radio New Zealand statement of corporate intent acknowledges that the independent review found that Radio New Zealand was underfunded in its ability to sustain its current services, that this was contributing to its relative financial instability, and that it would limit future investment in necessary key strategic infrastructure investments. These are obviously diplomatic words but they are code for saying that Radio New Zealand is financially squeezed and substantially underfunded.
Last year, acknowledging this underfunding, the Labour Government finally increased Radio New Zealand's budget by $2.6 million—way less than what the chairman of Radio New Zealand said was needed to maintain Radio New Zealand services at current levels. In fact, the chairman said that he was disappointed that the amount allocated by the Labour Government was well below the recommendations of the recent funding review—$4.5 million below. Radio New Zealand was hoping for a further increase to meet this $4.5 million a year shortfall in funding.
Unfortunately, as previous speakers have pointed out, Radio New Zealand's funding has been frozen by the National Government for the next 4 years.
That means that Radio New Zealand will continue to be substantially underfunded even to carry out its core activities, and to retain its current services, and this underfunding will inevitably undermine its ability to meet its charter obligations to deliver its core services and maintain, let alone improve, its present services. Already, we are informed, staff have been told their wages are going to be frozen this year; the only thing they will be offered is job security, and Radio New Zealand is projecting a deficit of $1.1 million this year.
Think about the implications of this underfunding.
If Radio New Zealand is constantly cash-strapped, if it cannot invest in new, fresh, innovative programmes, if wages are frozen so that it becomes increasingly difficult to attract and retain staff to keep the organisation going, then inevitably the quality of Radio New Zealand will deteriorate and so too will its ratings.
This will become a vicious circle.
If this happens, if the quality of programming deteriorates through lack of funding, if ratings then deteriorate, we are fearful that we will start to hear calls not just from ACT—and I am sure Roger Douglas is going to make these calls soon—but also from the National Government to sell this gem: the last, the only independent public service broadcaster left in New Zealand.
So increased funding is at the heart of this debate; it is absolutely critical. Supporters of Radio New Zealand, the huge numbers of people who listen loyally to Radio New Zealand who are as delighted as I am to be able to listen to an informed, interesting, impartial radio organisation that is not constantly interrupted by commercials, need to campaign for an increase in funding because otherwise we will find that even though Radio New Zealand has a charter it will not be able to deliver it, programmes will deteriorate, we will be in a vicious circle, and before we know it, the National Government will be talking of selling off not just TVNZ but Radio New Zealand as well.
We know it is going to try to sell off TVNZ if it gets the next term of Government.
It has already removed its charter and its funding base. So we are worried, even though the Government has agreed to this charter, that it really has the same game plan for Radio New Zealand and therefore every New Zealander who is concerned about Radio New Zealand needs to be fighting for increased funding for Radio New Zealand.
Thank you.
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