te Heuheu Georgina: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
te Heuheu Georgina: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:614;Page:10321] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 I am pleased to stand and speak to the Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill if only to say that National opposes it and that it has been a complete waste of time. There are other things about Radio New Zealand that deserve attention and what this bill seeks to do will not aid Radio New Zealand one iota in its bid to get its share of the listening audience. Although the bill is a small one it is taking up the time of the House when it ought not to do so. 
The bill seeks to amend the charter through first of all amending the principal Act by adding the words “spiritual and ethical” after the word “cultural” in the expression “... contribute towards intellectual scientific and cultural development promote informed debate and stimulate critical thought” and so on and so forth that currently appears in the charter. So the bill seeks to add to the provision of programmes two other traits: spiritual and ethical ones. It also seeks to extend the purview of Radio New Zealand’s programming so that somehow it can cater to the full range of age groups. I guess that means children as well as adults. Section 7(2) of the principal Act is also amended by adding paragraphs that seek to have Radio New Zealand commission surveys first of those who listen to it and second of persons who are not members of its current audience. In one respect that is fair enough but as I said in my opening statement this bill is a waste of the House’s time. Radio New Zealand to date has failed to deliver on the existing charter yet this bill seeks to amend the charter by putting more obligations in it. 
National opposes the bill for those reasons and asks questions along the following lines. First of all we are all very much aware that at the time the bill was introduced into the House earlier in the year we had all witnessed—because it had become very public—in Radio New Zealand an organisation that was completely dysfunctional. Back in February of this year a report was commissioned from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu to look into management and other issues that had surfaced in Radio New Zealand. It was found that Radio New Zealand’s staff were at breaking point. They were in despair over budget cuts and associated woes and there was a high staff turnover. The newsroom was at breaking point. There was the issue of the treatment of Sean Plunket. When one thinks about the fact that the Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill seeks to insert a provision in the Act for the radio station to cater to the ethical needs of New Zealand one wonders why the Government showed no concern about the way that prominent broadcaster was being treated. There was also the issue of Ms Snowdon who had to use any means by which she could make her concerns about Radio New Zealand known. There were budget blowouts and the board was asking for more money. 
It was in that context and with a declining listenership that the Minister introduced this bill earlier in the year. Now he is persisting with it yet nothing that has happened during the year—this is confirmed by my colleagues who were part of the financial review of the organisation earlier this year—suggests that things have turned round at Radio New Zealand. That is not good enough. More criteria are being introduced as to the way the organisation should— 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: The bill before us is the Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill. Public radio under its current charter is required to provide programmes that contribute to intellectual scientific and cultural development and this bill adds a spiritual and an ethical dimension to the charter. I have to ask whose ethics and whose spiritual beliefs they will be. That is such a wide wide brief there is no way in the world in my view that any State broadcaster could fulfil that function. However no doubt if this bill passes into law we will see how that pans out. The bill also adds a responsibility to provide programmes that cater for a full range of age groups. The big listening audience in New Zealand I understand is the younger age group: 18 to 40-year-olds. How Radio New Zealand caters for that age group is obviously its big challenge. The Government now sees fit to make that a requirement of the charter. How can it cater for littlies—who knows? 
This Government is intent on imposing more requirements in the charter when quite frankly from the Opposition’s point of view Radio New Zealand has failed to deliver on the charter requirements that it has in any event. [ 
Interruption 
] Gosh that was lucky. A Minister has just come into the House— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member must not refer to the absence of a Minister. 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: Of course the context within which the Minister seeks to pass this bill into law is that Radio New Zealand has struggled over recent years to hold its share of the listening public. Its operations have been characterised by governance and management issues. There has been something close to what one newsperson earlier in the year described as internecine warfare with staffing and personnel issues that have shown the organisation to be dysfunctional and chaotic. I do not know whether anybody is confident at all that much has been done to correct that—other than that there is now a new chief executive for Radio New Zealand. 
I want to comment now on the new chief executive. Hopefully Peter Cavanagh an Australian will somehow be able to lift Radio New Zealand to the place it ought to have. We must remember that the listening public is spoilt for choice. We have a marketplace that is saturated with commercial radio. Peter Cavanagh’s task—and he certainly seems to have the background for it—will be to lift the listenership and to make sure that Radio New Zealand is a broadcaster whose proper place in the broadcasting scene can be found and confirmed. The charter requirements that are added in this bill will not help his job but nonetheless we will see how he along with the board will deliver on those requirements. Hopefully Peter Cavanagh will get the basics right first and make sure that the funding this broadcaster has is funding it can live with and that it is able to ensure that its management issues are properly resolved. 
This bill tries to cater to everybody and to be all things to all people. That is typical of this Government but it will not work. It is also typical of this Government that it seeks to impose its politically correct views on the public. Hopefully that is not what is envisaged in this bill. In any event as I said earlier the bill is a waste of this House’s time. The Government ought to have made sure that the broadcaster delivered on its charter requirements as they were without imposing more requirements—as this bill does.