Genter Julie Anne: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGenter Julie Anne: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 19 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3436. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): The Green Party supports this bill and we absolutely support Radio New Zealand and public broadcasting more generally. There is nothing really controversial about the bill itself. I suppose the only comment that we can make is that the Government certainly took a very very long time to get this bill before the House. It is not a very complex one. I am not sure why it has taken the Government so long but it was required by statute to have a review of Radio New Zealand’s charter and that review was undertaken in 2006. It has taken a very very long time for this bill to come back to its second reading.The real problem for Radio New Zealand and for public broadcasting in New Zealand generally is the fact that it is incredibly underfunded. I think the comments made by Government MPs really gloss over the fact that we have underfunded public broadcasting. There has been a funding freeze since 2008. That effectively means there has been a 10 percent cut to Radio New Zealand since the National Party came into Government. Of course it would like to say: “Well that’s great. We’re providing the same great service but we’re spending less money on it.” But it is clear that this is having an impact on the ability of Radio New Zealand to deliver that important service to New Zealanders.In 2007 there was an independent audit by KPMG that concluded the organisation was already at that time seriously underfunded understaffed and under-resourced. It recommended an immediate funding increase of $6.7 million. Instead of that this National Government has frozen the funding for the 7 years that it is has been in power. That has clearly had an impact. There have been very high-quality journalists who have not been able to be retained because they are not able to receive any sort of increase in salary despite the fact that costs of living are going up.We have a bit of a crisis in public broadcasting because I believe the National Party members do not really believe in public broadcasting despite what they say. They do not believe in public broadcasting they do not really believe in democracy and you can hear that in their talking points on this bill when they talk about how Radio New Zealand needs to be more like a business. Well the purpose of public broadcasting is not to be commercially viable. The whole purpose of public broadcasting is to provide what the market is not going to provide and that is independent journalism which is essential for citizens in order to have a functioning democracy.If we look at New Zealand compared with other OECD countries our level of funding for public broadcasting per capita is abysmally low. It is almost as low as the United States which is in fact the only country in this study that spends less on public broadcasting per capita than New Zealand. I can tell members of this House and those watching on Parliament TV tonight that public broadcasting is virtually non-existent in the United States. It is part of the reason we have such a toxic media environment and such a broken democratic situation in the United States the country that I come from.So if we look at other OECD countries and the amount of money that they invest in public broadcasting because it is so important and critical to democracy we can see that Australia spends three times as much as New Zealand per capita. The UK spends nearly five times as much per capita. Of course small countries that are similar in size to New Zealand—for example Denmark spends significantly more per capita about 6 times as much as New Zealand. So New Zealand is falling behind and of course it is in the interest of this National Government to ensure that there is not an independent well-funded public broadcaster because then there will not be anyone there to ensure that the electorate is hearing in-depth analysis and policy debates. That makes it easier for this National Party to get elected when it can rely on superficial branding to get elected and there is no scrutiny of the actual policy that it is implementing.The Green Party believes in democracy. We believe in properly funded independent public broadcasting not only on radio. We would immediately increase funding to Radio New Zealand so that it has a proper budget and we would also ensure that there is proper public broadcasting available on television. We need a non-commercial television station which has not occurred since we lost TVNZ 6 and 7. Of course I think we need to go a lot further than that if we want to provide quality content and information. It is not just about news and current affairs although that is incredibly important and essential to democracy. It is also about entertainment and culture. After all we do not want our children in New Zealand growing up with accents like mine. It is important for New Zealand to preserve its independent identity and it is valuable I think to New Zealanders. I think the National Party is very defensive on this because it knows that its own voters believe in Radio New Zealand and believe in public broadcasting. What it would like to get away with is saying it supports these things but not actually funding them.The truth is we cannot afford not to have public broadcasting. National would have you believe we do not have enough money for this; that is like saying we do not have enough money for elections. If we want a properly functioning democracy we need a properly funded public broadcaster both on television and on radio and if the National Party—Hon Amy Adams: How much would you give them? How much?JULIE ANNE GENTER: —actually supported Radio New Zealand then the Government would increase the funding by at least the $6.7 million that KPMG recommended and probably at least indexed to the rate of wage inflation.I will just conclude by saying that the Green Party wants to see a diverse quality strong and independent media that contributes to the maintenance of effective democracy and Aotearoa New Zealand’s social cultural economic and environmental well-being. This National Party understands the cost of many things but the value of very few. Thank you.