Curran Clare: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCurran Clare: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 16 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:9026. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South): Well hear hear to that from the Labour Party.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): It was not the Labour Party either. It was New Zealand First.CLARE CURRAN: Well golly golly is all I can say. Golly which is not a swear word in Parliament. But ultimately the passage of the Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill through the Chamber is a bit of a travesty and a serious embarrassment to this Government. It has been said so on numerous occasions by members on this side of the Chamber. The Government seems impervious to that and I suppose the conclusion that one can draw is that the National Government of New Zealand is not committed to Radio New Zealand and certainly not to public broadcasting in this country.What is public broadcasting? It is the ability of New Zealanders to have their voices reflected back to them and to have good analysis and debate in a way that is impartial and is not coloured by commercial interests. Unfortunately in this country that is almost out the door. Radio New Zealand is the last bastion of that and it is clearly not valued by this Government.I want to address my comments specifically to Supplementary Order Paper 94 by the Minister of Broadcasting which is a relatively comprehensive Supplementary Order Paper which was tabled in the House without the ability for a select committee to have a discussion for there to be any debate for there to be any submissions. Labour supports the Supplementary Order Paper but it is quite comprehensive and it disturbs me that such a comprehensive amendment to a piece of legislation that has sat on the Order Paper essentially since 2009 can go through this House with comprehensive amendment without the ability to have a debate have some discussion about it and even for the Minister to comment. I have got some specific questions tonight for the Minister which I expect to be answered during the course of this Committee stage. If they are not answered then this Parliament is a joke. And the way that our system operates there is no ability to have questions answered and for matters to be properly canvassed especially matters that go to the core of how our democracy operates and broadcasting is an essential plank of our democracy even though the members on the other side of the Chamber may not agree with that.The Supplementary Order Paper introduced by Amy Adams is as I said supported by Labour. We do not believe that this amendment will fundamentally weaken the existing charter which is at the guts of this bill. What it does—and it does something that is new and when the Minister spoke in the second reading she talked about modernising Radio New Zealand—is make provision for multi-platform provisions and for the generation of new content-related revenue streams overseas. A lot of New Zealanders now are watching content on their devices or through their televisions using smart TVs or Chromecast or whatever apparatus they are buying from their providers. Ultra-fast broadband is actually improving people’s access improving the speed and the ability to download and access content.Radio New Zealand is doing its best and I would like to give it that credit tonight—absolutely. It is doing its best to keep up and to provide those platforms. The big issue is that it is trying to do it within the existing funding envelope which has been frozen since 2009 and that has ultimately taken it backwards in its budget by 25 percent. It is probably more than that and it is time I did another calculation. What the Supplementary Order Paper does is update. It updates dealing with new platforms. What it does not do—[Bell rung]The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): This is the fourth and final call.CLARE CURRAN: Thank you. What it does not do is empower Radio New Zealand to extend its operations on to new platforms and find opportunities to commercialise its content overseas and that is because of that frozen budget. That is a really important point tonight for everybody listening to this. They may be listening through Radio New Zealand. They may be watching on Parliament TV which is another small expression of public broadcasting in this country. There is no new money so what Radio New Zealand is trying to do with its new platforms is do it within its existing envelope.I have three amendments—if anybody on other side of the Chamber has bothered to pay attention to this—that try to clarify what the Minister’s intention actually was. We have serious questions about a couple of things and I just want to touch on them. Paragraphs (a) (b) and (c) of new section 8AB(3) inserted by clause 5 create boundaries around the services that the public radio company may provide but do not state who is to determine whether any proposed service is consistent with its role as a public broadcaster. That is absolutely critical. Is it the Minister? Who is the determiner? Is it the Minister? The Supplementary Order Paper is absent on this matter and because there has been no select committee process and no chance to question officials we want the Minister to tell us who makes that decision. If it is to be the Minister of Broadcasting there need to be safeguards and they are in my first amendment which determines basically that if it is the Minister of Broadcasting there have to be safeguards around that. This is absolutely critical as conflict of interest issues are at stake here for New Zealand. If it is not to be the Minister and it is to be the board then there also have to be safeguards around that. We have another amendment which goes to the heart of that. I request that the Minister of Broadcasting during the Committee stage on this bill actually answer those questions otherwise we are passing a piece of legislation that is neglecting to answer some fundamental questions. We need those answers.The other issue that people listening at home need to know about is that Radio New Zealand’s budget is frozen. Its ability to enact what is in this legislation this Supplementary Order Paper that the Minister has put forward is severely compromised by its frozen funding. It is doing a laudable job of creating new platforms through the internet and using all the mediums that it possibly can to deliver news but it is being deliberately starved. Its news budget is compromised. In order to build these new platforms in order to provide these new services it is compromising the existing budget. New Zealanders who love Radio New Zealand who have thought of it as a treasure a taonga for our country in every survey that has ever been done ought to be asking and need to have answered the questions as to why Radio New Zealand is in this situation and just what is going to be done about it.Although Labour supports the Supplementary Order Paper the Minister has put before the Committee we have our own three amendments which I am asking the Committee tonight to support. Labour’s amendments provide some clarity around the powers of either the board or the Minister in determining how those decisions get made. We need those answers. In the meantime Radio New Zealand is continuing. It is one of those organisations that we should really give a great big tick to in terms of how it does manage the limited budget it has. It has attempted to do that for more than 7 years. The Minister needs to answer those questions tonight.