Lee MelissaMELISSA LEE (National): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker for the opportunity to take a call in the Budget debate. But before I actually get on to the debate I'd like to first of all send my condolences to the family of Pipi Boyd who was a Korean War veteran and he passed away just last week. He was a very special man. I remember him because when I visited Marlborough he actually gave me a beautiful tiki carving. He had it for a very long time and he actually put it on me—the carving that he had he put it on me. He's passed away.Hon Tim Macindoe: That was a lovely thing to do.MELISSA LEE: That was a very lovely thing to do Tim. I shall miss him.So moving on from that the Hon Meka Whaitiri talked about how it has been nine long years she said in her speech and you would have thought that when members had been sitting on the Opposition benches for nine apparently very long years they would actually have some plans put together for when they became the Government.Hon Tim Macindoe: You would think that.MELISSA LEE: You would think that. That's right Mr Macindoe. You would think that—sorry Madam Deputy Speaker. I don't mean you Madam Deputy Speaker. I mean the members of the Government. I would like to think that they had a plan when they were on this side of the House in Opposition and they were not in agreement with the Government of the time which was a fantastic Government I would have thought. They should have had a plan but they didn't. This is their first Budget and some people have actually said it was exciting it was full of—whatever.But let me just get on to what Meka Whaitiri said. She said they delivered for under-13-year-olds: free medical care for under-13-year-olds—as if that was a brand new thing that the Labour-led Government has delivered for New Zealand. It's about tinkering at the edges. It was the National Government that delivered free medical care for under-12-year-olds and they've literally only increased it by one. I think that's actually good. I mean free medical care for children under 13 is good but it is not something that they have delivered from zero to 13. They've literally just tinkered.Earlier this week I asked a question in this House to the Minister of Broadcasting Communications and Digital Media. As spokesperson I do that quite regularly. She said in her answer something along these lines: that all Ministers in this Labour-led Government had to compromise—they had to compromise. What I said was that the broadcasting Minister actually promised the industry $38 million a year. She even took a Cabinet paper which—actually it was redacted. The bit that said $152 million over four years" was redacted. But the Minister for open Government in her wise choice maybe failed to redact it properly or maybe it was one of her staffers who actually did it. But you could literally cut and paste it and see it.She went to Cabinet to ask for $152 million for the broadcasting sector and what did she get? What did she get? She got less than 10 percent.Hon Tim Macindoe: Less than 10 percent.MELISSA LEE: She got less than 10 percent Mr Macindoe. That is less than 10 percent.Rt Hon David Carter: That was too much to her.MELISSA LEE: That was too much to her. She got $15 million out of $152 million that she actually promised the industry. I remember the Christmas party that she attended for New Zealand On Air last year when she was the—Rt Hon David Carter: I remember the breakfast she attended.MELISSA LEE: Oh you remember the breakfast Mr Carter? Yes I think maybe it was a very expensive breakfast. But at the Christmas function of New Zealand On Air last year she was so welcomed by the group. The media people loved it because she was literally going to be delivering $152 million.Do you know I have to say I agree with Russell Brown. Russell Brown said that this is a broadcasting shambles. I have to agree with a number of other stakeholders who have used a couple of more choice and colourful words but I had better not use them because I might get ejected from this Chamber. I would think that some of those words are actually unparliamentary. But I'd like to maybe use what Jo Moir of Stuff actually did. Jo Moir rated the Minister of Broadcasting Communications and Digital Media one out of 10.Hon Louise Upston: How much?MELISSA LEE: One out of 10 for her ministerial performance. I guess when you consider the fact that this Minister literally delivered less than 10 percent of what she promised and what she took to Cabinet she actually deserves that one out of 10 rating.Hon Tim Macindoe: What a chronic disappointment.MELISSA LEE: It is a chronic disappointment Mr Macindoe. Apart from the broadcasting sector—actually I remember something that the Minister of Broadcasting Communications and Digital Media put out today. I think it was a press release suggesting that she will ensure the digital survival of a 1970s documentary series—never mind the World War I and World War II footages which are slowly possibly dissolving in their own acids. She is going to be resurrecting some documentaries. One of them is a documentary about John A Lee to inspire us all—a documentary about an ardent socialist for an Ardern-led Government. What quality public broadcasting options this Minister is actually putting together! I am simply astounded at some of the options that she's actually talking about.The thing is she's delivered $15 million into the broadcasting sector but it was supposed to have been for RNZ+. Radio New Zealand was supposed to deliver a brand new television channel within their means right—in radio. Radio New Zealand was supposed to have a television channel with $15 million not all of which is going to Radio New Zealand. It's going to the ministerial advisory group's decision for a potential Public Media Funding Commission decision to see whether the $15 million is going to go to RNZ+ or Radio New Zealand.For me as a former television producer and somebody who really loves public media public broadcasting—I actually love it. I love the fact that she is championing it. I think that's great. You know I think that's wonderful. But when the Minister promises so much and when the Minister delivers so little after promising so much I would say that is a failed Minister that's a failed promise and it is certainly something that we need to monitor.Hon Tim Macindoe: All talk no dosh.MELISSA LEE: That's exactly right—all talk no action. There's certainly no action apart from the certain breakfast that she had with a certain broadcaster.I'd like to move on to my other portfolio in terms of the ethnic communities strategy. I know I only have a very short time left but it is quite disappointing that the Minister for Ethnic Communities hasn't really seen an increase—actually she's had a decrease—in the funding that she requires. For someone who is supposedly championing the ethnic communities when considering the fact that the projected population of ethnic communities is set to rise—particularly the Asian community for example which is going to rise from 12 to 22 percent by 2038—to consider that Language Line which has been very good at delivering services to the community is actually getting a reduction in expectations on their performance and a reduction in funding in all of the portfolio I think it's a reflection.Even the Minister of Education did not deliver for the ethnic communities when he decided to do a survey of the education sector for the next 30 years. He was consulting apparently with the parents but did not include the ethnic languages of the Chinese the Korean the Indian. So we in fact reminded the Minister; now he's actually changed it so that those ethnic community languages are included. But the very fact that it becomes an afterthought actually makes me wonder whether the Minister for Ethnic Communities is in fact doing her job of championing for the rights of all New Zealanders who are not necessarily born in New Zealand and who come from different races and different ethnic communities speak a different language and have a different religion to feel as if they are part of this country. I think this is another Minister who is subpar and she is part of a Government that is definitely subpar."