Mooney JosephAOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND PUBLIC MEDIA BILLFirst ReadingDebate resumed from 30 June.JOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I rise to speak in respect of the Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media Bill. The National Party is opposed to this bill. The move to amalgamate Radio New Zealand and TVNZ is yet another wasteful and pointless move by the Government adding yet more bureaucracy yet more costs and largesse to our public sector. It will reduce media plurality in New Zealand and further erode public trust in New Zealand media. We should instead be supporting the growth of our media content industry—a vital cultural export as part of New Zealand's tourism and digital economy—not amalgamate it and not waste money on it in the wrong places.Unfortunately we have seen a continuation of a programme by this Government to centralise various organisations and spend a lot of money on them in the hope that it's going to lead to better outcomes. The National Party does not believe that is going to be the case with merging Radio New Zealand and TVNZ. It's going to create another mega-entity with an extraordinary $327 million being spent on it over three years as the country faces a cost of living crisis. We have seen this Government try this already with Te Pūkenga the merger of 16 polytechs and institutes across the country. Back in 2019 the sector was facing an expected shortfall of $48 million and the Government centralised all of those polytechs together into an organisation called Te Pūkenga in the expectation that it was going to lead to better outcomes. Well what have we seen? We've seen them spend $200 million on that merger. We have seen the default balloon to $110 million so it's doubled in three years with a $200 million spend on it. This unfortunately gives us a good indication of the trajectory of where this merger of Radio New Zealand and TVNZ is likely to go—$327 million being spent on it over three years. Is it going to lead to better outcomes? Unfortunately this Government's track record shows that no it will not.It's an incredibly expensive exercise and already we've seen millions of dollars spent on contractors reviews and working groups since 2017. The Government has so far failed to give any financials to back a Budget 2020 assertion in the summary of initiatives that the new media entity would make $306 million in the next six years. So all we have to go on is a dart thrown at the dartboard and the Government saying that it's going to make a whole lot of money but we've got no financials to back that up. The legislation is vague leaving nearly everything to an unaccountable public bureaucracy. Unfortunately—Hon Scott Simpson: Typical Labour.JOSEPH MOONEY: —again—very typical Labour as my colleague the Hon Scott Simpson says and we've seen this again and again. With Te Pūkenga unfortunately we've had a chief executive who's gone on personal leave and the sector is at a loss as to the work programme they're supposed to be delivering. These things are important. The media industry is an incredibly important part of New Zealand's democratic and constitutional framework. In fact it's what is often called the fourth estate. So its role is to reflect New Zealand back to itself. It is to hold the organs of Government to account. It is to hold the legislative the executive and the judiciary to account and to reflect those stories back to New Zealand so New Zealanders can make informed decisions and choices about the country they live in. So this is this is a really important part of our constitutional framework.Unfortunately we have seen over the last few years an increasing loss of trust amongst some members—or many members in fact—of our communities. In fact we've had many emails being sent to us and we've been hearing around the country—and I've certainly heard it many times myself—a loss of trust in the media and that a large section of New Zealand is being completely turned off from the publicly funded media and is feeling that the public media spending isn't leading to stories that reflect their concerns and reflect the country that they want to live in. So it's really important that we have a public sector media that can reflect those interests and to have that we need diversity in media. Unfortunately this megamerger this mega-entity is going to reduce that plurality reduce that diversity of opinion and diversity of structures in our media landscape and that is a great shame. So the National Party does not commend this bill to the House.