Maharey Steve: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Maharey Steve: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:613;Page:10262] 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Broadcasting) 
: 
 I move  
That the Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill be now read a second time 
. This bill represents the final step in the first 5-yearly review of Radio New Zealand’s charter. As part of a Government that has a strong commitment to the principles of public service broadcasting it is a pleasure for me to bring this bill back to the House. [ 
Interruption 
] Public broadcasting over the last little while has seen some pretty uncertain times but as I am sure Ken Shirley will applaud it is now in very safe hands. 
As I said when I addressed the New Zealand broadcasting conference back in 1994 public broadcasting is above all else driven by an ambition or belief that broadcasting makes a contribution to the health of society and the health of our culture. This Government holds strongly to that belief and we are working hard to ensure it is reflected in the reality of public broadcasting. 
The Commerce Committee was asked to undertake the review of Radio New Zealand’s charter in December 2000 and the committee’s report was tabled on 21 December 2001. That report was supportive of the charter and suggested only a few minor legal changes to assist Radio New Zealand to engage fully with the charter’s spirit. The Government considered the report and agreed with its recommendations. The proposed amendments were originally drafted for inclusion in the Statutes Amendment Bill (No 3) but not all parties in the House supported that course of action so the Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill was created instead and referred to the Commerce Committee. 
The bill proposed three areas of change to the charter. The first was to propose some changes of wording to incorporate certain concerns raised by submitters during the review of the charter. Those changes were supported by the committee. The current charter requires our public radio broadcasts to provide programmes that contribute to intellectual scientific and cultural development—which is of course why Mr Shirley does not listen to it. This bill adds spiritual and ethical development to that list. That change recognises that in order to contribute to the health of our society and culture public broadcasting needs to address those additional dimensions. There is also a new requirement to include programmes for a full range of age groups which are designed to ensure that the needs of children are included. 
I pause for a moment on the matter of the spiritual and ethical elements put into this bill which do not mean a religious denomination. It means that New Zealanders in terms of programming do have concerns about values issues which may well be religious issues and about issues of spirituality in the broad sense that represents the wide range of cultures that make up our society. It is reasonable to expect that those concerns are explored on Radio New Zealand. 
The second point is that Radio New Zealand is also required to provide an international radio service to the South Pacific which is called Radio New Zealand International. The provision of that service has been part of Radio New Zealand’s operation for 13 years and this change to the charter gives recognition to the importance of that function. It is important. We know that other nations—such as the Australians who have a very large budget—broadcast into the Pacific but one of the most exciting things about the way we do it is that we do it from the Pacific Island point of view. We do not run a broadcasting programme that comes from New Zealand and tells Pacific Island nations how the world should be; we have a lot of people who are able to provide the view of those nations through that service and we keep them up to date with what is going on around the world and what is happening here in New Zealand. 
Finally Radio New Zealand is required for the first time to survey the views of non-listeners to its broadcasts and to inform the shareholding Ministers of the results of those surveys as part of its annual report. We are very keen to know why people listen to Radio New Zealand and why they do not. It is the nation’s broadcaster so we want to know what both those listeners who tune in and those people who do not are looking for. We do not expect or even think that all New Zealanders will glue themselves to Radio New Zealand all the time—I think there are 168 radio frequencies available to people throughout this country—but we want to know that people regard their national broadcaster as a broadcaster they will tune into to meet particular needs they may have: news current affairs a particular programme or whatever. Radio New Zealand is there as something that everyone sees they have a stake in and that they feel is part of the infrastructure of New Zealand. The purpose of that new requirement is to assist in assessing Radio New Zealand’s performance against its charter obligations and to inform future programming decisions that may increase the size of its audience. 
The select committee consideration of the bill led to the calling for submissions on the bill and all submissions received were supportive of the proposed changes. The committee has not recommended a change to any of the provisions of the bill except to recommend an amendment to change the commencement date of the bill to January 2004. 
The Radio New Zealand Act which incorporates the Radio New Zealand charter is a major part of the public broadcasting landscape. The ongoing maintenance of the charter is essential if we are to keep our sights on what it is designed to achieve. I make special mention of those groups and individuals who took time to make submissions—at the time of the review and on the bill itself. All those efforts are of course appreciated. I am also grateful to the members of the original Commerce Committee for their thorough consideration and review and to the members of the current select committee for the expeditious way in which they heard submissions and reported back on this bill. 
I am aware that this is the first review of the charter. I am also aware that it has been a protracted one. From the first instruction to the Commerce Committee in December 2000 it has taken a good 2½ years to reach this stage. While cognisant of the fact that these reviews are required every 5 years I will certainly be looking at ways in which we can streamline the process. But the notion that we will review the charter—for both radio and television—is essential. It is something that is owned by the people of New Zealand. Whatever they may do with their broadcasting we want them to have a stake in what goes on in Radio New Zealand. One of the key ways of doing that is to review that charter regularly. That gives people the chance to talk about what they want to hear and affirm what they are hearing on Radio New Zealand and it ensures that what takes place in the nation’s broadcaster is relevant to their lives and allows them to explore what it means to be New Zealanders through all the programming styles genres and content they get on Radio New Zealand. One way to do that is to have an effective review of the charter every 5 years. 
As a member of a Government that believes Government does have a role in broadcasting—as do all progressive nations all over the world—I look forward to what is a small but significant change to this legislation. I look forward to the fact that New Zealanders will feel this is a step closer to what they want to hear on their nation’s radio broadcaster and I thank once again all those who have been involved with this bill.