Kedgley Sue: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Kedgley Sue: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:655;Page:4636] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party is delighted to support the Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill. We are immensely relieved to know that there is still one broadcaster left in New Zealand that still has a public service charter that commits its organisation to serving the public interest—not commercial interests but the public interest—and to providing independent impartial balanced news and current affairs. Radio New Zealand is the only independent commercial-free public service broadcaster left in New Zealand whose sole purpose is to serve the public interest. Is it not fantastic to listen to the radio when it is not interrupted every few minutes by commercials? We are relieved too that the Government has not yet seen fit to scrap Radio New Zealand’s charter as it has scrapped Television New Zealand’s charter. Of course we applaud the charter. Who would not applaud a charter with the lofty goals of committing Radio New Zealand to providing independent commercial-free broadcasting and so on? 
The Green Party strongly supports Radio New Zealand because we believe it is critical to the health of our democracy that we have broadcasters whose sole purpose is to serve the public interest; not to maximise the profits of shareholders or to chase ratings and to schedule programmes according to how much advertising they will attract but simply to serve the public interest. It is extraordinary that we have such a broadcaster because we in New Zealand have the most unregulated broadcasting environment in the Western World. 
It is a time where an increasing concentration of media ownership is going into fewer and fewer hands and virtually all of our media are in foreign ownership. We are seeing an ever-greater convergence of newspapers television and radio operations less and less diversity of opinion and fewer and fewer independent sources of news and information. But Radio New Zealand stands out as a veritable beacon as the only truly independent commercial-free public service broadcaster in New Zealand. Thank heavens for that! Although Radio New Zealand has a charter with these lofty and admirable goals the Green Party is concerned that successive Governments have not provided Radio New Zealand with the funding that it desperately needs to implement the charter. This is the critical issue that we need to debate. What is the purpose of giving Radio New Zealand this lofty charter if the organisation is so cash-strapped that it cannot deliver on the charter goals? 
In the 2007 or 2008 financial year the then Minister of Broadcasting commissioned an independent review to determine the level of funding required for Radio New Zealand to maintain its services at its current levels—that is just to keep the organisation going. This review was carried out by independent consultants. It was agreed that the results of the review would form the basis for all future discussions with shareholding Ministers about the level of funding that was needed to maintain Radio New Zealand and its core services. So this is a critically important document that will allow the public to know whether and by how much Radio New Zealand is underfunded. The Green Party has been trying to get hold of this critically important document but the Government—the Minister—is refusing to release it under the Official Information Act claiming that it is commercially sensitive. What utter nonsense! 
Radio New Zealand is a public service broadcaster so how can an assessment of its funding possibly be commercially sensitive? We have gone to the Ombudsman asking for this document to be released as we think it is scandalous that this independent funding review is being kept secret. We suspect that the real reason for keeping it secret—indeed we know—is that this Government and the previous Government do not want the public to know that the independent review concluded that Radio New Zealand was underfunded by $7 million a year which we are informed of by reliable sources. 
The latest Radio New Zealand statement of corporate intent acknowledges that the independent review found that Radio New Zealand was underfunded in its ability to sustain its current services. It found that this was contributing to its relative financial instability and that it would limit future investment in necessary key strategic infrastructure investments. These are obviously diplomatic words but they are code for saying that Radio New Zealand is financially squeezed and substantially underfunded. Last year acknowledging this underfunding the Labour Government finally increased Radio New Zealand’s budget by $2.6 million—which is way less than what the chairman of Radio New Zealand said was needed to maintain Radio New Zealand services at current levels. In fact the chairman said that he was disappointed that the amount allocated by the Labour Government was well below the recommendations of the recent funding review. It was $4.5 million below the recommendations. 
Radio New Zealand was hoping for a further increase to meet this $4.5 million a year shortfall in the funding that was recommended by that independent secret review. Unfortunately as previous speakers have pointed out Radio New Zealand’s funding has been frozen by the National Government for the next 4 years. So that means that—never mind inflation—staff wages are frozen. That means that Radio New Zealand will continue to be substantially underfunded even for carrying out its core activities and to retain its current services. This underfunding will inevitably undermine its ability to meet its charter obligations to deliver its core services and maintain let alone improve its present services. We are told that already the staff have been told that their wages will be frozen this year; the only thing they will be offered is job security and Radio New Zealand is projecting a deficit of $1.1 million this year. 
I ask members to think about the implications of this underfunding. If Radio New Zealand is constantly cash-strapped if it cannot invest in new fresh innovative programmes and if wages are frozen so that it becomes increasingly difficult to attract and retain staff to keep the organisation going then inevitably the quality of Radio New Zealand will deteriorate and so too will its ratings. This will become a vicious circle. If the quality of programming deteriorates through lack of funding if ratings then deteriorate we are fearful that we will start to hear calls not just from ACT—and I am sure Roger Douglas will make these calls soon—but also from the National Government to sell this gem which is the last and the only independent public service broadcaster left in New Zealand. 
Increased funding is at the heart of this debate; it is absolutely critical. The supporters of Radio New Zealand the huge numbers of people who listen loyally to Radio New Zealand who are as delighted as I am to be able to listen to an informed interesting impartial radio organisation that is not constantly interrupted by commercials need to campaign for an increase in funding. Otherwise we will find that even though Radio New Zealand has a charter it will not be able to deliver it and its programmes will deteriorate. We will be in a vicious circle. Before we know it the National Government will be talking of selling off not just Television New Zealand Ltd (TVNZ) but also Radio New Zealand. We know it will try to sell off TVNZ if it gets the next term of Government. We know that because it has already removed its charter and its funding base. We are worried even though the Government has agreed to this charter that it really has the same game plan for Radio New Zealand. Therefore every New Zealander who is concerned about Radio New Zealand needs to be fighting for increased funding for it. Thank you.