Faafoi Kris: Māori Television Service (Te Aratuku Whakaata Irirangi Māori) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFaafoi Kris: Māori Television Service (Te Aratuku Whakaata Irirangi Māori) Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 19 November 2013. Volume:695;Page:14938. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana): I know at home the eyes of the people listening to this debate the Committee stage of the Māori Television Service (Te Aratuku Whakaata Irirangi Māori) Amendment Bill may be glazing over because we are talking about spectrum—Clare Curran: Oh!KRIS FAAFOI: —not necessarily in particular reference to the previous speaker my colleague Clare Curran but because we are speaking about spectrum. Maybe I should not have said that. Because we are talking about spectrum sometimes—excuse the pun—that goes over the head of most New Zealanders. But what is important here is that because we are having what is called the digital switch-over on I believe 1 December an analog frequency that was allocated to Māori Television will under this bill be allocated to another organisation called Te Pūtahi Pāoho. It will be that organisation that essentially gets to utilise that old analog spectrum. Where that spectrum becomes important is that it can actually be transformed into a digital spectrum. In that spectrum there is the ability for eight digital TV stations to be carried so one old spectrum becomes a new digital spectrum in which you can broadcast eight TV stations.Why is this important? Because in the future if someone wants to start up a TV station and if the Māori Television Service had that spectrum it would have the ability to lease out one of those eight stations to make some money off it. But because there has been a transfer of that spectrum from the Māori Television Service to Te Pūtahi Pāoho it is taking away a potential revenue-gathering plan for the Māori Television Service. We have heard from my colleagues about the importance of making sure that the Māori Television Service has increased revenue. I think my colleague Clare Curran just made the point in her previous speech and Nanaia Mahuta made a reference to that in her second reading speech. So the question that I want to ask the Minister in the chair at the moment the Minister of Māori Affairs is: why? How will the proceeds of Te Pūtahi Pāoho’s management of that spectrum benefit the Māori Television Service which is forgoing the right to that spectrum? So if he can answer those questions that would be very useful.I think that the Māori Television Service would feel a little bit hard done by if it had this asset that is no longer going to be used but that could be used in a different way to make some revenue to host other broadcasters but that has now been taken off it. So to the Minister in the chair—and this specifically refers to paragraphs (c) and (ca) in clause 4(2) about the spectrum management rights—I ask: how is it going to be utilised by Te Pūtahi Pāoho? How will the funds from that if it makes any money from it go to the Māori Television Service or not? And why specifically has that spectrum management right been transferred from the Māori Television Service to Te Pūtahi Pāoho and not stayed with the Māori Television Service? I do not know whether there is a decent enough answer.I guess it goes to show that there is no real overarching vision from the Government around spectrum use. We have seen it in 4G. The Government has just announced—and I think my colleague has put a press release out today—its intentions to sell off the 4G network which has just become available. Instead of being able to ring-fence some of that 4G spectrum or think of other uses where it can be utilised it just says that it is going to flog them all off. As Clare Curran mentioned in I think her second reading speech very recently Sky television said it was going to give four packets of this analog spectrum back. So four times eight because of the theory I said before means that up to 32 television stations could be broadcast on the four packets of spectrum that Sky hasjust handed back to the Government. As of yet we have had no word from the Government as to what it intends to do with it.Just to give those at home an understanding of what these frequencies are worth one of those packets recently sold for about $1.7 million at the auction that the Government held. Am I right here? [Interruption] Yes it was roughly $1.7 million. So these are resources that have got some cost. Obviously in the future as digital technology gets better it may actually be able to hold more transmission capability. So if people want to start television stations here in New Zealand these are the kinds of things that they are going to need be able to broadcast. So they will have some future value. I would like to see an overarching strategy from this Government—I am not expecting one—as to how it manages the spectrum that has just become available to it from Sky and the spectrum in the 4G sphere which my colleague Clare Curran has already mentioned today and what it sees as the best fit. That is not just to hock them off to the highest bidder but to say: “OK if we’ve got four packets that have just come back from Sky television do we ring-fence some of that for any public broadcasting future?”.We have announced today that we think the Government should ring-fence one of those packets—one packet of analog which can be transferred into eight television stations at this moment—that has just been given to it to make sure that that is protected for any future public broadcasting. If the Government sells those four packets off to the highest bidder they are all gone. So if any future Government that is actually committed to public broadcasting like members on this side of the House wants to start up a public broadcaster there will be some spectrum available for us to do that. But what I fear will happen—and those members have gone quiet so this is probably what is going to happen—is that those four packets will just be hocked off to the highest bidder. So when it comes to the time for members on this side of the House to say that we want to start up a public broadcaster there will be zero spectrum available to us. So we will probably have to go back cap in hand to whoever bought that spectrum and say: “We need some of it back.” If I had bought that spectrum I would say: “Well things have changed. You really want to do this so you are going to have to buy it at a much higher price.” Well in the long run that is bad for the taxpayer because not only do we have to pay more for the spectrum but we could have held on to it and ring-fenced it so that we had the ability to not just start one but also have seven more television networks there on that spectrum.I will propose this challenge to the Government and maybe the Minister in the chair would like to see how this works for the Māori Television Service as well. This Government has the ability now to ring-fence spectrum to manage spectrum in a responsible manner for State broadcasting. You probably get to sell it or lease it only once every 20 years so what the Government does now is very important. It can either hock it off and it has a track record of doing that or it can say: “This is important stuff right now. We might be able to sell some of it but this is going to be saved for any future Government. They might want to do it”—again I am not expecting it—“for public broadcasting.” So that is another question that I might pose to the Minister in the chair around spectrum because this management arrangement in the bill seems a little bit strange to me. Again I guess it is a little bit symptomatic of a Government that does not have an overarching plan when it comes to spectrum.It is very important. People at home are actually watching Parliament TV now on spectrum. If they want to see any future public broadcasting stations there is going to have to be spectrum available there for it. So this Government needs to make a pretty hard decision: does it care about public broadcasting enough to ring-fence some spectrum or not? I think that this bill around the way that the spectrum from Māori Television Service is changing the management rights to Te Pūtahi Pāoho shows thekind of attitude that this Government has to spectrum. It does not really care. Well it should care because this future Labour Government will be committed to public broadcasting and we do want to make sure that there is spectrum available for it. If the current Government does not care about public broadcasting it will just sell that spectrum and we will all know the commitment from that Government to public broadcasting. So it will all be down to a decision that the Government will make very soon about whether it sells it or keeps it. If it sells it then you know that this Government does not care about public broadcasting. If it keeps it well it has proved the critics wrong.I would ask though that maybe the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee could put a bit of pressure on the Government and take a call to say that he agrees with me because the success of Māori Television could be augmented by it having another channel. But we do not know how that is going to happen because it is no longer in charge of the frequencies that it is going to be going out on. That now goes to—no not Māori Television—Te Pūtahi Pāoho. So it cannot manage any further growth without having to go through this other organisation which may say: “We don’t care about you having another channel. We’re going to lease out the rest of the spectrum just to make money.” Here is a question and it is a serious question: if there is money to be made out of the spectrum what is it going to be used for? I would prefer that it goes back into the culture but that question has not been answered.