Carter David: Television New Zealand Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Carter David: Television New Zealand Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:606;Page:3735] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (NZ National) 
: 
 I was very keen to take a call on Part 1 in which we are discussing the surprising—or maybe it is not surprising—about-face by Mr Maharey. In August last year he argued that in no circumstances would BCL the transmission arm be split out to be a separate company. Now after listening to and recognising the excellent contributions and work done over the intervening months by my colleague Katherine Rich the National Party spokesperson on broadcasting Mr Maharey has conceded that there may be a better way of doing things. 
But I want particularly to talk about clause 3 as it went to the Commerce Committee. It has now been eliminated under Supplementary Order Paper 57 which was drafted at the eleventh hour by this Labour Government. I refer specifically to paragraph (c) which stated: “ensure that the subsidiary responsible for the transmission business operates as a successful business:” Those are fairly simple words—“ensure that the subsidiary responsible for the transmission business operates as a successful business:”. We acknowledge that the “Maharey principle” has been applied to this legislation. Mr Maharey has suddenly changed his mind and we are no longer talking about a subsidiary of Television New Zealand. 
However nowhere in the Supplementary Order Paper can I find any reference to the requirement that BCL still operate as a successful business. If it is there I expect Mr Maharey to take a call and point that out to us. But I suspect that what we are seeing here again is further destruction of taxpayer value—further destruction of a business that at this stage is still a profitable part of Television New Zealand—by allowing the business to operate on the basis of one of those wally-ish social responsibilities with no requirement at all that it be run as a sensible business. 
Marc Alexander 
: Rubbish! 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Marc Alexander interrupts and says: “Rubbish!” 
Hon Steve Maharey 
: It is rubbish. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: The Minister has not taken a call. 
Hon Steve Maharey 
: The member hasn’t asked a question yet. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Yes I have asked a question. I will repeat it seeing that Mr Maharey not only has changed his mind but appears to be hard of hearing. I ask him why the words “responsible for the transmission business [operating] as a successful business” have been taken out. Why have those words now been taken out of the original bill that went to the select committee? If Mr Maharey will take a call and explain that I will happily sit down and let him do so. 
Hon Steve Maharey 
: No I’ll wait for a sensible question to be asked. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: No he is not going to take a call. Maybe Mr Alexander would like to take a call because he has suddenly become a real expert on the Television New Zealand Bill. Let him take a call and assure the Committee that this particular arm of Television New Zealand once it is split into a separate entity will still be required to operate as a sensible and profitable business. It is a simple question. It should be easily answered. I am happy that Mr Alexander is prepared now to acknowledge that he will take the next call. It will be interesting to see whether he does—to see whether he jumps to his feet and defends the Government’s new change to the legislation before the Committee. [ 
Interruption 
] He might come with God’s message! I do not mind how he comes to the debate but let him now take the next call and assure us that he is supporting legislation that will not have this business become another part of the social agenda with no requirement at all that it operate as a successful business. 
We have already heard in the debate that Television New Zealand was worth a billion dollars. Now it would be difficult to sell even if the Government wanted to do so. That is the level of destruction of shareholder value that we have seen in 4 years. 
Marc Alexander 
: Because of the split? 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: No definitely not because of the split. The member should listen. It is because of the way that Television New Zealand has now completely changed its focus. It no longer has to focus on delivering dividends to the Government.