Coleman Jonathan: Broadcasting Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Coleman Jonathan: Broadcasting Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:645;Page:14717] 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (National—Northcote) 
: 
 I want to comment on the Minister’s contribution. The Minister in the chair the Hon Trevor Mallard has an awful lot to say when other people are speaking but when it came to his opportunity he just dwelt on those minor stylistic points. We were really hoping he would address some of these serious issues that we were discussing relating to the implications of this bill and the impact it will have on the broadcasting landscape. For the Minister to get up and talk about minor points of grammar style and apostrophes was a wasted opportunity. 
What is interesting here is that clause 16 “Remedial technical amendment to Television New Zealand Act 2003” brings us back to the charter debate. That was the Act that established the charter and the charter is at the heart of a lot of the difficulties we are currently seeing Television New Zealand in. As my colleague Dr Worth said to the House last night the charter is nothing more than a set of aspirational statements with no measurable goals. That really is the problem. The charter can mean all things to all people. We can put “Dancing on the Stars” on television and that can be construed as a charter programme. 
Jill Pettis 
: With! With! 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: I have heard that Mrs Pettis is going to be on that programme in 2009 when she has left the House and that will be pretty interesting. 
We see the problem that the charter is placing Television New Zealand in. It is being told on the one hand that it has to return this dividend to the Government—it was let off the hook on that last year—but on the other hand it is supposed to be providing public broadcasting content for all New Zealanders. When we look at the reality of what we see on a Television New Zealand promo and we line that up against the charter it is hard to see what the connection is. If we look at any promotion for what is on Television New Zealand and what is coming up we see it features all the entertaining American British and European shows. We have  
The Sopranos 
  
The Tudors 
 and  
Desperate Housewives 
. If we look at the charter and all this notional aspirational stuff we could say that all it really is is something that is holding Television New Zealand back. Why are there no measurable concrete goals? 
We have just had this charter review and we are going to be reviewing the redrafted option soon at the Commerce Committee. I have read through it pretty closely. All it does is rearrange headings reclassify material and rearrange the chairs on the deck of the charter  
Titanic 
. I think it is pretty disappointing stuff and I reckon the Minister should get up take a call and say what his plans are for getting TVNZ back into the black. It is this Television New Zealand Act 2003 that has got Television New Zealand into much of this trouble. The Minister really has to address these problems. He cannot just fritter away and wind down his time to the election by stalling by getting up when he has an opportunity to talk on broadcasting and just giving vague vacuous speeches on apostrophes as he did when he was referring to the schedule. We had Dr Richard Worth cover that material in admirable form. 
Let us go back to clause 16 “Remedial technical amendment to Television New Zealand Act 2003”. That particular clause does not do much. Subclause (1) amends the Act. Subclause (2) states: “The item relating to the Broadcasting Act 1989 in Schedule 1 is amended by omitting ‘Preamble’ and substituting ‘Long Title’.” I think we could apply those comments to much of what the Minister said when he had the opportunity to speak on this. 
Part 2 just mops up a few miscellaneous aspects of this short and succinct bill which it looks like the whole of the Parliament will be supporting. Just to sum up again I say that it changes the funding arrangements whereby NZ On Air and Te Mangai Paho the Maori broadcasting funding authority can fund content across a range of platforms. People are sourcing their content on the Internet and they are looking well beyond traditional television and radio. This brings us into the 21st century and means that the funding arrangements will be fit for the future. That will be pretty important. The main caveat we have to have is that if this content is to be funded with public money it has to be available to all New Zealanders free to air. We do not want it to be pay-per-view. I would like to hear the Minister talk about this. I know Mrs Pettis is getting bored; this well exceeds her attention span.