Kedgley Sue: Television New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Kedgley Sue: Television New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:672;Page:18761] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 I too like the previous speaker Brendon Burns will focus in the Television New Zealand Amendment Bill on new section 57A which is all about making archived works available for public viewing. It is supremely ironic that for many years there have been negotiations to allow the creation of the wonderful wonderful library of archival material made over many years while TVNZ was a public service television broadcaster. For years there have been negotiations about how we could make that archival material available on television. An agreement was negotiated to allow archival programmes to be screened for public viewing. The irony is as the previous speaker pointed out that this wonderful treasure of archival material made by public service television will not be able to be screened on TVNZ on free-to-air television because this bill will turn TVNZ into a commercial broadcaster stripped of any public service interests or obligations. It will exist to chase ratings and to return a dividend to the Government. 
This totally commercially focused new entity that Television New Zealand will be once this legislation is passed will not screen archival material because that material will not rate like some blockbuster imported American programme. As the previous speaker said we will not see that material. Having spent all this time negotiating for the wonderful collection of archival works to be screened they will not be screened or made available for public viewing. It will not be available on free-to-air television once TVNZ 7 has also gone next year. 
Ironically the only place we might be able to see this archival footage is on pay television on Sky television. It is extraordinary and ironic that Television New Zealand a publicly owned broadcaster told us recently in the Commerce Committee that its main area of growth was in developing material and channels for pay television. A free-to-air broadcaster which TVNZ still is at this moment sees as its main raison d’être the making of channels and programmes for pay television—for Sky television. Quite clearly as I have mentioned before in this debate the agenda is to move away from free-to-air television in New Zealand—just as we are now moving in this bill away from public service television—to pay television and commercial television. It is ironic that this will happen. 
It is interesting that Brendon Burns said that he worked in regional television for TVNZ. I did not know that. I too worked in regional television in TVNZ when it was a genuinely public service organisation. When I worked for TVNZ for 2 or 3 years on  
Eyewitness News 
 etc.— 
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga 
: Did you? 
SUE KEDGLEY 
: —yes—there was a significant current affairs department there was regional television and there was a whole documentary department. Documentaries were screened every week and watched by a very large segment of the population. Some of the highest-rating programmes were documentaries. When we look 20 years later at what Television New Zealand is today we ask where the documentaries are. Where are the New Zealand - made documentaries? Where is the current affairs television—the in-depth current affairs television? 
Unfortunately Television New Zealand is but a shadow now of its former self. In this bill it is stripped of all its public service obligations. Under this bill it is a nakedly commercial organisation.