Eckhoff Gerrard: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Eckhoff Gerrard: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:616;Page:12248] 
GERRARD ECKHOFF (ACT) 
: 
 In coming late to this debate I am impressed frankly with the quality of the speeches coming from this side of the Chamber and I say that in all sincerity. Because as my colleague Deborah Coddington pointed out we are meant to be and I emphasis those words “meant to be” secular in this Parliament. Quite clearly we are not. We say a prayer at the start of proceedings when the House sits and some would start to perhaps question whether that is appropriate. We have many people in this Chamber of hugely differing values and spiritual beliefs. Is it offensive therefore for a Christian prayer to be said at the start of a sitting of this House? That is a question that I think we need to reflect on. 
But I would like to ask the Minister in the chair to define for me and the Committee what a “value” is as it is in this bill. We often hear the words “inherent values”—the inherent value of having a charter for Radio New Zealand. What is the inherent value there? I think that is a perfectly legitimate question because I can tell the Minister what the inherent value of a square or a triangle is. It is very very definable. A triangle for example has three sides. That is inherent and we know that—we understand that. But to describe a value and try to implant it into legislation is a nonsense. 
 The Resource Management Act requires—I do not know the particular section—that we pay homage to some spiritual value of Maori. What spiritual value? That spiritual value of Maori in the Resource Management Act was bought for $1.5 million. How can one buy a spiritual value—yet it happens constantly under that Act? With my colleagues I am demanding to know what that spiritual value is. 
I do know what a cultural value is in terms of radio. I am well aware of that. I would describe Hokonui Gold in Gore as having wonderful cultural values for those of us in the south and those who would tune in. Many of us are rural people and that is a hugely cultural radio station. Jamie McKay and the team down there do a wonderful job expounding the values of the culture of the people of Gore and that region. Why is that radio station not State-owned? Why does the Minister not rush down put a cheque on the table and say: “Because you have these cultural values at Hokonui Gold we have to buy you.”? It is arrant nonsense to even suggest that such things should happen. However it is quite clear in the charter of Radio New Zealand that this socialist Government wants its tentacles to reach right into the boardroom and have a large measure of control over State-funded radio. 
We all know that the Governmentis very left wing in its attitude. Those of us who happen to have a different point of view do not get anywhere near the same airtime as those who hold the same socialistic and indeed even communist values that members of this left-wing Labour Government have. It is quite wrong to introduce concepts of spiritual values. The animist beliefs of so many of this Labour Government who talk about the mauri within a mountain or a river are arrant nonsense. The spiritual value comes from within oneself. It does not come from a rock a mountain or a river. It is the ability of human beings to understand and appreciate the beauty of nature. That is the spiritual value that is deep within one’s being. It is not something that can be put into a charter and it is not for the Government to force the people of this country to adhere to such matters. It is quite wrong and a considerable amount of nonsense to try to do so.