Wong Pansy: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Wong Pansy: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:607;Page:4669] 
PANSY WONG (NZ National) 
: 
 I wonder why the House is in urgency to debate this bill. Is it not amazing? 
Hon David Carter 
: It’s April Fool’s Day. 
PANSY WONG 
: The bill was introduced yesterday on April Fool’s Day. Why do I question that? It is because when the Minister of Broadcasting the Hon Steve Maharey first took up his post on 15 September 2002 he was described as media savvy. He actually said that Radio New Zealand could do better. He said that as the Minister of Broadcasting he would like to see Radio New Zealand being an exciting and compulsive-listening piece of our media and that he did not think it was doing that right now. Well I looked at the performance measurement of Radio New Zealand since the Hon Steve Maharey took over and I have to say that a survey of the Radio New Zealand audience—not a rating of how large the audience is; just a survey—showed that the number of people who listen to Radio New Zealand for 8 minutes and over decreased by 6 percent and that the Concert FM audience level decreased by 10 percent. 
The sad fact is that reduction in audience level of 10 percent is actually a target set by Radio New Zealand. It is interesting to see that a Government agency has a performance measurement that means it has only to do well enough to reach 90 percent of the previous year’s target. In effect Radio New Zealand was authorised by the Minister to say every year that it will try to achieve 90 percent of the previous year’s performance. I do not think any private organisation would submit a budget plan to its shareholders that says its aim is to achieve a target that is only 90 percent of that of the previous year. That organisation would be budgeting for a 10 percent decrease every year. 
Against that background I thought that the Hon Steve Maharey might have introduced the Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill to try to change that. I thought that maybe this bill would consist of some miracle some exciting target or some funding provisions that would enable Radio New Zealand to achieve what the Minister says it should be—an exciting compulsive-listening piece of media. But let us look at what this bill actually tries to do. 
First of all apparently it is going to introduce two more words into the charter the mission statement of Radio New Zealand so that the organisation should aim to develop programmes that reflect “spiritual” and “ethical” values. Those words have been added to its objective. As the Minister has introduced through this legislation the words “spiritual” and “ethical” I wonder where the guideline is. I have looked through the bill which consists of only 2 pages but there is no definition no parameters for the meaning of “spiritual”. Also I did not know that Radio New Zealand had not been adhering to ethical standards in the past. As far as I am concerned our media in New Zealand have a peer review system whereby the public can complain if Radio New Zealand fails to live up to the community’s standards. 
Another provision of this legislation is that the organisation should try to aim to cover “a full range of age groups”. We need to explore that further. The Chief Executive of Radio New Zealand Sharon Crosbie was reported as saying—she actually comes before the Commerce Committee every year for the financial review—that the audience consists mainly of the 35-plus age group. When the Minister wants Radio New Zealand to extend its audience to a full range of age groups I presume he wants to see Radio New Zealand catering more for the youth market. But many times when I sat on the Commerce Committee we received independent reports and submissions from other sectors convincing us that the youth audience is very well served by the variety of private radio stations available. In fact there are about 300 radio stations in New Zealand and a lot of them have been very successful in targeting the youth audience. So why are the Labour Government and the Minister of Broadcasting hell-bent on channelling taxpayers’ money towards targeting in particular a youth sector that is very well served by private radio stations? Young audiences have been able to receive a service from the whole range of radio stations currently provided in the community. I think the Minister should front up and explain why he intends Radio New Zealand to enter the highly competitive market of youth listeners. What specifically does the Minister want youth listeners to receive from Radio New Zealand? What does he think they are deprived of in terms of what is provided by private radio stations? 
To be fair to Radio New Zealand I would have thought that if its master so to speak the Minister of Broadcasting wanted Radio New Zealand to turn itself into a dynamic exciting compulsive-listening piece of media then he should be realistic in terms of funding Radio New Zealand well. But we found that Labour after criticising the previous funding level of Radio New Zealand actually in last year’s Budget cut $225000 from its funding. The Government cannot on the one hand demand that a radio station perform and attract high-quality personalities and journalists then on the other hand reduce its funding and its ability to attract those high-calibre personalities and staff. Ultimately we have to accept that to be able to appeal to the audience it has to have quality programmes and quality presenters. 
As the Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill is being debated under urgency I would have thought that it had an urgent mission to fulfil and that it would provide some exciting initiatives like a generous funding commitment to Radio New Zealand. But this bill is nothing more than another piece of politically correct legislation that will not enable Radio New Zealand to obey its master’s command to become exciting and compulsive-listening radio. The National Party will be voting against this bill.