te Heuheu Georgina: Broadcasting Amendment Bill — First Reading 
te Heuheu Georgina: Broadcasting Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:641;Page:11667] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 As the Minister has outlined the purpose of the Broadcasting Amendment Bill is to amend the Broadcasting Act to allow Government funding for a wider range of digital programmes in a variety of formats for instance the Internet mobile phones video on demand etc. We still do not know what is coming down the line in any event so I suggest it is proper to be prepared. 
Currently the Broadcasting Act allows the two funding agencies New Zealand On Air and Te Mangai Paho to fund programmes for television viewing only. This bill enables the change to allow them to fund new formats. The bill also changes Te Mangai Paho’s role to allow it to fund the archiving of Maori culture and language programmes. Currently New Zealand On Air is the only agency with the ability to do that. I acknowledge that that is a very important provision. Maori language and culture are key to New Zealand’s identity and it is very important that the proper archiving of Maori language and culture is accommodated. 
The bill was created to deal with rapid technological change in the broadcasting industry especially in terms of digital media. National supports the bill. We accept that in a digital environment there is a need to bring funding arrangements into line with modern and evolving broadcasting technology. It is sensible and proper to update arrangements. We also accept that publicly funded content needs to be available to the public whether through analog television the Internet or FreeView. However National would be concerned if this funding were used for programming that could be viewed only through a pay per view cellphone platform and we will be holding the Government to account on this issue. 
Of course funding for different formats is sensible but in the modern broadcasting environment content reigns supreme and until the Minister of Broadcasting gets his broadcasting policy online these provisions could be superfluous anyway. Minister Maharey’s performance to date has been woeful in National’s view. He was given a charter for Television New Zealand (TVNZ) to implement along with the commercial format and that has proved to be a disaster. This dual public broadcasting and commercial remit does not seem to have worked at all over the last 6 years and National on many occasions has pointed this out. Steve Maharey does not seem to have taken much note of it but as far as we are concerned in terms of content $80 million worth of public money has been seemingly going down a black hole every year. The proof of the pudding of course is that TV audiences are still dropping and at the same time the Government is trying to develop the digital platform. 
We acknowledge that that is a big job to do but the Minister has given very little real leadership to enable the public broadcaster to do this in a way whereby the viewing public of New Zealand who expect a decent public broadcaster—and whose money funds this development—can be confident that we in fact have a decent public broadcaster in our presence. So there is a lot of work to do and as I said the Minister has been a lacklustre leader in terms of the Government’s broadcasting policy. Although we recognise that these changes are probably necessary and make sense in terms of the bigger picture that needs to be addressed I think Steve Maharey for the short time he has left as the Minister of Broadcasting has a lot of work to do. So we are asking him what the plan is. What for instance will he do about improving local content on TVNZ? 
I recall the time when Rick Ellis came to the Maori Affairs Committee about 2 months ago. We wanted to know how he thought he was doing in terms of Maori programming on TVNZ in relation to his charter responsibilities and surprise surprise he thought he was doing great. He thought that programmes like  
Location Location Location 
 and  
Police Ten 7 
 and other programmes were satisfying the Maori content responsibility. What a laugh! What an absolute scandal! Just because there are Maori in prison on a TV programme he thought that that satisfied the Maori programme requirement on television. So as I said although the changes in this bill are sensible content reigns supreme when it comes to making them. The audiences will tell us that. They either watch or they do not and of course TVNZ audiences have been dropping away anyway. So there is another area in which the Minister has been very lacklustre.  
Game of Two Halves 
 with Mike King is a very funny sports programme that I watch and enjoy but I have to say that Mike King’s presence there does not a Maori programme make. 
There was nothing in TVNZ’s announcements 7 or 8 days ago about its new Maori programming format that gave me at least or I am sure any other Maori MP in this Chamber any confidence that it knew that tripling the number of hours is not necessarily improving local Maori content. Where is the funding for that anyway? It is all very well to announce that it will triple the hours for Maori programming but no funding is appearing to meet that. That is fine because as it says it will compete with Maori TV for the same putea so we will see how it does. 
Tripling the hours is one thing but getting decent local content is another. Perhaps TVNZ is going to triple the hours and have more ridiculous things. Maybe instead of one Maori family on  
Location Location Location 
 buying a house it will have two families; perhaps that is the way it is going to do it. [ 
Interruption 
]  
Kai Time 
 is on Maori Television I say to Dover Samuels. We are talking about TVNZ here. This is the broadcaster that gets $80 million worth of that member’s taxes and my taxes every year and has still to prove that it can properly manage its charter responsibilities and its commercial remit at the same time. So far it has not done that. 
Just to finish off in terms of Maori programming I say that TVNZ will be competing with Maori Television for the same putea the same pot of money. It does not deserve to get any if its content is not going to improve from the kinds of things it has produced in the past and that Rick Ellis has said was Maori programming. As I say it is scandalous that he should come to the select committee and sell those programmes as Maori programming. It is an insult to Maori audiences and it is an insult to New Zealand audiences actually. If the charter were working properly then every New Zealander and especially Maori would feel they were getting a perspective of the Maori world view that they might not otherwise get. That is what these kinds of changes are aimed at and that is what the charter funding is aimed at. Until the Minister of Broadcasting Minister Maharey winds the public broadcaster in the right direction then this is possibly designed to fail as well. Thank you Madam Speaker.