Kedgley Sue: Television New Zealand Bill — In Committee 
Kedgley Sue: Television New Zealand Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:606;Page:3805] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 Transmission Holdings Ltd as it will be known will probably be the only State-owned enterprise that has ever been created as a stand-alone State-owned enterprise by an eleventh-hour amendment in the Committee stage of Parliament. The problem is that by creating it in that very last-minute way a rather great anomaly has arisen. Because Transmission Holdings Ltd has come about at the last minute after the select committee process the Government has never been required to spell out the reasons for that quite radical change which it most certainly would have had to do if that change had been included in the bill. The Minister has said he is happy to answer questions but he has steadfastly refused to answer my questions. I will ask them one more time because I want him or the Government to put on record to explain the reasons behind that last-minute change.  
Why at the very time that the Government is asking in this legislation for Television New Zealand to focus on programming instead of advertising would it take away what the previous Minister of Broadcasting called the “golden goose” of TVNZ the profitable transmission arm that has been quietly providing revenue for TVNZ? Why would that be taken away at the very time it is being asked to focus less on advertising and more on programming leaving it even more vulnerable and dependent on advertising revenue?  
We can predict that it will not earn enough advertising revenue. Members only have to look at the performance of TV3 until recent years to see how difficult it is for commercial free-to-air television to survive on advertising revenue alone—and we do not want it to anyway because we do not want TVNZ to be ratings-driven. That is what the bill is all about.  
Will the Government then top it up and give it more direct funding to make up for the shortfall in advertising? What happens if there is a shortfall in advertising and a future Government refuses to give direct Government funding to Television New Zealand as a future National Government almost certainly will do? What will TVNZ do then? What will happen to this charter? What will happen to all these pretty performance measures if there is no money to fund New Zealand television programmes as there will not be because of the radical last-minute amendments to the bill?  
It is a mystery as to why that has happened and why the Minister will not tell us why it has happened but I have just found out what I suspect is the reason. Marc Alexander said in the House yesterday that members of United Future he and Peter Dunne had gone off to Michael Cullen who had agreed at the last minute to separate off the transmission arm. I said to Marc Alexander “Hang on a minute Michael Cullen is not the Minister of Broadcasting. He’s the Minister of Finance. Surely this is broadcasting policy. This is policy driven by the Minister of Broadcasting. Why would Michael Cullen make this decision with his friends from United Future and why not the Minister of Broadcasting?”. Marc Alexander said to me a few moments ago that there is no way that Mr Maharey the Minister of Broadcasting would ever have agreed to such a stupid idea as separating off the golden goose from Television New Zealand in order to leave it cash-strapped and unable to implement his charter.  
That is what Marc Alexander told me and I can only assume that he is correct. If he is not I would be very very happy for the Minister of Broadcasting to stand up and take a call to tell us whether that is true. It is important to know whether the Minister of Broadcasting is opposed to the last-minute changes in this bill. If he is not opposed to them why on earth would he support changes that will kneecap Television New Zealand and that will prevent the charter from being implemented? Those are important questions and they deserve an answer. The Minister said he is happy to answer questions. Let him answer that.  
I have another issue on reporting because that is what we are talking about here. The memorandum of understanding which I have obtained under the Official Information Act between the Minister and TVNZ on the $10 million or $11 million that will be directly funded to TVNZ states that there will be no obligation on TVNZ for any additional charter performance reports.