McAnulty KieranKIERAN McANULTY (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm very very pleased to be able to speak on the Broadcasting (New Zealand on Air and Te Māngai Pāho Reporting Requirements) Amendment Bill. I think it's a tremendous use of taxpayers' money to have members of Parliament speaking on bills that really are unclear on what the problem is that they're trying to solve! The thing is that we have a proposal in front of us that would impose costs and regulation on two agencies that actually for the nine years prior to this Government were severely underfunded and now we're wanting to put more burden on them to release information that's already available. I'm quite staggered really that when we are standing here today—the very week that the leader of the National Party indicated that his solution heading into the 2020 election was to light a regulations bonfire. He said that Regulations are going too far creating a lot of cost and burden without merit." They want to ignite the regulations and what do they do now?Hon Chris Hipkins: Does the bill self-combust?KIERAN McANULTY: The bill may as well self-combust because it'll be the only thing that this bill achieves.The thing is that this bill is utterly pointless and this message was sent very clearly before we came out to even consider the bill by two notable media commentators. And I have here in front of me: "Broadcaster Russell Brown noted that New Zealand On Air is committed by law to funding programmes for various niche audiences which can't sensibly be measured simply by commercial ratings". The chair of the public campaign group Better Public Media Dr Peter Thompson who said it was "ironic" that "Melissa Lee received millions of taxpayer dollars to make … Asia Downunder" but now wants to change the law in what he described as "an attack on low-rating public media content." Because of course we mustn't forget that the function of New Zealand On Air is to "reflect and develop New Zealand identity and culture" and to ensure that a range of broadcasts are available to provide for the interests of minority and special groups by making funds available for broadcasting producing and archiving programmes.If under this bill New Zealand On Air was forced to release rating information we put it to the member and to this House that this bill would undermine the core functions of New Zealand On Air—the very reason why New Zealand On Air exists. What this would do is it would say "See you later Country Calendar and hello 'Celebrity Treasure Island: MasterChef Special' ". That is what we would see. We would see a race for ratings and those key programmes that many minority and core interests in our society rely on would be kicked down the road. Absolutely they would be shot down in pieces for the sake of ratings. And we all know the examples of the programmes overseas coming out of the places like America and the UK; programmes like the The Ricki Lake Show and The Jeremy Kyle Show—stuff that really wants to broadcast the best of New Zealand society wants to really raise the minority interests and tell the New Zealand stories because of course that is what New Zealand On Air is for.This bill would impose regulations and red tape and cost and bring New Zealand On Air away from its absolute core functions. We say that that is wrong. It would be an expensive implement it would bring no gain whatsoever and it makes me wonder. In the proud history of National Party members' bills I think this goes up there at the top of the list with Nuk Korako's infamous baggage-handling bill because it identifies a problem that isn't actually a problem and tries to bring a solution to something that doesn't need one. I think Melissa Lee and the National Party are opening themselves up to criticism of the old-fashioned ballot stuff. I think that they wanted to fill a gap and they struggled with ideas. Of course they want to get into Government after the next election and if this is the best they've come up with I don't think we've got anything to worry about. I think we're going to be all right because the fact is that New Zealand On Air when adequately funded—and particularly after the significant funding boost that this Government gave them—is able to go back to its core functions of producing content that tells New Zealand's stories and that broadcasts our stories to the nation and to the world. It is unburdened it is solely focused on its core purpose and this bill would severely undermine that."