Street Maryan: Privilege — Television New Zealand—Former Chief Executive Consideration of Interim Report of Privileges Committee 
Street Maryan: Privilege — Television New Zealand—Former Chief Executive Consideration of Interim Report of Privileges Committee 
[Volume:630;Page:2576] 
MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 The Privileges Committee indeed found that a breach of privilege occurred on this occasion. We cannot allow any witness to come before a select committee give evidence and then be disadvantaged in any way by having done so. That is the import of Standing Order 400(w). That happened and it is accordingly a breach of privilege. It needs to be noted as such and that happens on page 6 of the interim report of the Privileges Committee. 
As the previous speaker noted the Television New Zealand (TVNZ) chairman has apologised to the committee for an inadvertent breach of privilege indicating that it was never the company’s intention to undermine the workings of Parliament. Indeed as the Privileges Committee went on to note in the report we would not expect that it would have happened otherwise than inadvertently. It would not be our expectation that such a thing would ever be done on purpose and to that extent we accept that it was inadvertent. 
But a key point here is the extent to which it is reasonable to assume that board members will be familiar enough with the Standing Orders to factor that knowledge into their employment relations management. The committee’s findings require however that TVNZ and indeed all Crown entities ensure that they comply with Parliament’s requirements and in particular the requirements of the Standing Orders. That issue may go to future action and the future training of boards and it is important that a lesson is learnt here. 
I know from my own experience in governance positions having been trained in the exercise of governance responsibilities and even in taking into account the responsibility of appearing before select committees—as I have had to do from time to time in governance roles—the relationship with a select committee is taken very seriously in that training. But the Standing Orders are never known as intimately by people outside of this House as by those within it. However as the earlier speaker said the failure of advice to people cannot be a complete exoneration. So these findings do raise issues of future awareness for State-owned enterprises Crown entities and others who may appear before select committees from time to time. 
What these findings do not do is go to the heart of TVNZ’s success as a broadcaster. I think it is important to make that point even though the point at issue here is the findings of the Privileges Committee. TVNZ is a successful broadcaster. It has the best ratings of any public broadcaster in the world and in fact in recent times both a new chairman and a new chief executive officer have been appointed to TVNZ. We expect in the light of this Privileges Committee report that the board and the company will fulfil their roles responsibly adhering at all times to the statutory requirements of a Crown entity company including the requirements of Parliament and its committees. We hope that that will be the behaviour of all such Crown entities in the future learning as undoubtedly they will do from the findings of the Privileges Committee. We look forward to the continued success of Television New Zealand as a broadcaster.