Kedgley Sue: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Kedgley Sue: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:616;Page:12242] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 First of all I say to those who were sneering at why we are considering this bill that it is my understanding the Government sought to put the provisions of this bill in a Statutes Amendment Bill. Members refused to do so and required the debate we are now having. So we should not hear too much nonsense about why we are wasting our time here. It is because of the members of this House that we are debating this bill tonight. Also there is a requirement in the Act that every 5 years Parliament consider the Radio New Zealand charter—and what an excellent provision that is. 
So we considered the charter. Submitters to the Commerce Committee—ordinary New Zealanders—requested that we added the words “spiritual and ethical” to the objectives. I find it absolutely fascinating that those words seem to create such anxiety and concern in this Chamber. What is wrong with considering ethical issues? Would that we did it more often given there are so many issues to consider today. We have been looking at human-assisted reproductive technology genetic engineering and cloning. What are those issues? They are ethical issues that require ethical debate. Thank God that we are going to call on Radio New Zealand to provide us with some ethical debate. Thank God also that Radio New Zealand already does an excellent job of having discussions on religion and so forth. I think that is absolutely excellent. It may have escaped some of the members’ attention in this Chamber that religion is a major issue of controversy and dissent in our world and it would be great for all of us I am certain if we had some understanding of other religions. And if we had some debate about spiritual and ethical issues I am sure that New Zealand would be all the better for it. 
Like the previous speaker the Green Party is extremely enthusiastic about supporting this bill. I think we have to remind ourselves that Radio New Zealand is absolutely unique in our media environment in being a genuinely publicly owned medium. It is the only medium in New Zealand that is completely owned by the public. Television New Zealand is a strange hybrid of commercial and public service but Radio New Zealand is genuinely a public service organisation. We should be very very grateful for that. Thanks to the Maurice Williamson amendment in 1990 New Zealand is the only country in the Western World that allows total foreign ownership of media companies. As a result of that amendment a handful of foreign companies own virtually all New Zealand’s media. We have Tony O’Reilly’s APN News and Media controlling most of the radio stations and the  
New Zealand Herald 
 and CanWest owning radio stations and TV3 and C4. Rupert Murdoch owns Sky and we have Kerry Packer and so forth. Basically all of our media are in foreign ownership. If all of our media are in foreign ownership we have to ask why foreign owners would give a damn about New Zealand’s identity and culture. In the final analysis they do not. Their bottom line is returning profits for their foreign shareholders. 
So thank heavens that as an antidote to all the foreign-owned media in New Zealand and to counterbalance the foreign ownership of our media we have one strong publicly owned medium in the form of Radio New Zealand with a charter that spells out that it must provide independent impartial current affairs and news. We have in Radio New Zealand an organisation that is free from vested interests and that does not always put commercial objectives ahead of its public service objectives. I think that we are incredibly lucky to have Radio New Zealand. It provides the only radio stations in New Zealand that one can listen to without being constantly interrupted by commercials. I think that is something that many many listeners value enormously.