Coleman Jonathan: Broadcasting Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Coleman Jonathan: Broadcasting Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:645;Page:14666] 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (National—Northcote) 
: 
 Members will notice that the Minister was rather flat when he was talking about broadcasting. He picked up a bit when he got into the personality stuff and was back to the old Trevor Mallard that we have all come to love and admire. It was getting a bit quiet there when Trevor was trying this reform stuff. But now that he is back to his old ways I must say it returns that interesting dynamic to the Parliament. 
He said in his speech that there is not going to be much debate on broadcasting. Well he might think that but what he is doing is going around the sector saying: “Look I’m very busy I’ve been dumped with this portfolio Steve Maharey is going and actually I don’t know anything about broadcasting.” Unfortunately he cannot interject now because he is not in his seat and he is leaving the House. The new seat that he has moved to is not his usual seat so he cannot interject from there either. He cannot go around the sector and be credible if he is telling people that he does not actually know anything about broadcasting because as we have heard and as the officials have told him we are actually facing some very complex issues in the digital broadcasting arena. National will be supporting this bill. The Minister did get this bit right—the bill will update the funding arrangements to bring them in line with new digital technology. Up until now New Zealand On Air and Te Mangai Paho the Maori broadcasting agency have been able to fund radio and television programmes only. That dates back to when this Act was instituted when we had only radio and television. 
When one looks at the new environment with the Internet mobiles podcasting and video on demand it is quite clear that broadcasting material is going to be delivered on a lot of new platforms. This means that those broadcasting agencies are going to be able to fund content that is specifically made for these new platforms. So no one could really object to this bill because it is just bringing the funding arrangements into line with the new technology. 
Additionally it will allow New Zealand On Air to archive Maori culture and language programming; Te Mangai Paho is going to be able to fund the archiving of Maori language and culture programmes. With the increasing amount of content we have in that area that is a logical and desirable development and National certainly will support it. 
The Commerce Committee heard just two submissions on this bill and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage recommended no actual change to the content of the bill. But one thing I think the public will need reassurance on is that if Government funds are to be used to fund programming that programming has to be available on a free-to-air platform and that is something we will have to look at. We would not want that publicly funded content to be available only on a pay-to-view basis. That is something we need to look at in the Committee stage. 
Trevor Mallard said that there is not a lot of debate in this area. The fact is that when we look at what has happened under Labour in terms of broadcasting policy it is quite clear that it has been a complete failure. We had a Minister of Broadcasting Steve Maharey who basically saddled Television New Zealand (TVNZ) with this dual remit. It is supposed to be a commercial broadcaster and it has to return a dividend for the Government and at the same time it is shackled by the charter and we saw what the result of that was last year. The 2007 financial result was that TVNZ for the first time in its history managed to make a loss of $4.5 million on $375 million of revenue. That is really quite amazing. How on earth can $375 million of revenue be turned into a loss? It almost defies belief. But we cannot actually blame the executives and management at TVNZ; it comes back to the problems with the Government’s broadcasting policy that is making TVNZ produce this charter programming and at the same time it is insisting on a commercial return. 
There is this problem at TVNZ because now with digital television we have these two channels TV6 and TV7 that have been funded with $79 million of taxpayers’ money and an extra $25 million on top of that—$104 million in total—and which if they are going to be successful will suck audiences away from TVNZ’s Television One and TV2 channels. That will further decrease the audiences of those channels which will further decrease advertising revenue. If TV6 and TV7 are successful it is really going to hit Television One and TV2. Then again if they are a failure well they are a failure and they will have been a waste of taxpayers’ money. 
So at TVNZ as a result of this Government policy we have developed almost the perfect storm for destroying revenue. If we talk to people from TVNZ in select committee hearings they cannot reassure us that the situation will improve because the whole platform is fragmenting: there are audiences viewing stuff on the Internet and there are things that can be downloaded in terms of on-demand television programming—if people have access to the right software and the right websites. The old model of people being glued to just one channel to see all their television content has been outdated. It creates a problem for TVNZ and the people there do not know how they will manage to improve things from here. It will be pretty tough for them; they have launched TVNZ ondemand but they say they do not know whether it will be successful. They are putting a big punt on digital television and this is where this digital review of regulation which the Minister was so keen to refer to comes into play. 
When we look at it it is a pretty big document; it is three volumes—about 300 pages. I am sure no one other than officials broadcasters and academics have read it. This is the plan of the Government and the Minister for back-door regulation in broadcasting. They are delaying this thing because they do not want it to be discussed before the election; it is 4 months behind schedule already. But it will mean that if the Government is going to make FreeView a success it will end up having to regulate in some way. That is something it knows will be unpopular with New Zealanders. The Government has just dressed this up in the guise of consultation it is laying out the options but at the end of the day Labour has a secret agenda to regulate broadcasting. 
Mr Mallard is smiling but he would love to do that. He has taken over Mr Maharey’s portfolio and it is well known that Mr Maharey from the hard left of the Labour Party would love to completely socialise broadcasting—there is no question about that—and this is the danger that the public has to be aware of. 
The charter is one of the roots of the problem at TVNZ. Basically the charter is a pretty meaningless document but TVNZ is saddled with it and it has to deliver on it. But it shows what a farce Labour’s broadcasting policy has been. Steve Maharey said that when we got the charter things would be much much better. 
Russell Fairbrother 
: Turn the volume up a bit! 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: I ask the burnt-out former member for Napier Russell Fairbrother: is the content on television after the charter any different from what it was before the charter—yes or no? 
Russell Fairbrother 
: Far better—it’s far better. It’s a working man’s channel; a working man’s culture. 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: There we go. I think that is the measure of Russell Fairbrother. We essentially have this dilemma that TVNZ has been placed in by this failed tired burnt-out Government of failed academics old unionists and party hacks. This Government has shackled TVNZ with a charter which means it has to deliver so-called public service broadcasting and at the same time return a dividend. That has created tension together with the whole way TVNZ has set up its digital broadcasting service. It means that this Government has set up TVNZ to fail. It is getting desperate for them and those at FreeView because unless it switches off the analog signal or gets some compelling content on those FreeView channels it knows they will fail. This is Labour’s secret agenda in broadcasting. It knows that unless it can regulate through this digital review of broadcasting FreeView will fall over. 
Trevor Mallard has announced that in 2012 he will make a decision on an actual final analog switch-off date. But he has not announced any plan for what will happen to the 800000 people who will not have digital television. 
Hon Member 
: He won’t be here. 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Of course that is quite likely. Trevor Mallard may well have taken the honourable option of retirement by that point and then the whole problem—[ 
Interruption 
]—Oh no; he is not retiring. He has nowhere to go. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: What! You’re joking! 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: No I would not joke. OK we are going to be entertained by the Minister as the previous Minister for many years to come. 
But to summarise National supports this legislation because it is going to bring the funding arrangements into line with technology. It has some sensible new arrangements for the archiving of Maori broadcasting content and National supports that. We have great concerns about Labour Party broadcasting policy; it has just about been the ruin of TVNZ. I can tell members that the next Government will have to come in and sort out this situation because the failed left-wing policies of Steve Maharey cobbled together with some bizarre commercial theory that he has had about broadcasting have just not worked. TVNZ is on its knees. The charter has delivered only job cuts and financial failure. I can tell members that in broadcasting as in every other portfolio it is definitely time for a change of Government.