Alexander Marc: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Alexander Marc: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:616;Page:12260] 
MARC ALEXANDER (United Future) 
: 
 I rise to support the third reading of the Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill. I will try to keep my voice down a little because I know that some of us are actually trying to do some work. 
Simon Power 
: Some of your colleagues are trying to sleep. 
MARC ALEXANDER 
: Not some of my colleagues; in fact some Labour members were trying to go to sleep and now they are off to bed I think. The bill covers three aspects of Radio New Zealand operations. Briefly the first is amendments to the charter to encourage Radio New Zealand to contribute towards New Zealand’s spiritual and ethical development. A lot of people have a bit of a problem with that and I do not understand why. Commercial radio stations have a charter and their charter is money. They go after it. They provide what they need to get the ratings they need so that they can get advertising dollars. That is their charter; that is their mandate. I think Radio New Zealand has a slightly different focus and that is fair enough. 
Secondly there are amendments that require Radio New Zealand to feature programmes that provide for varied interests including now a full range of age groups. Who can complain about that? This broadcaster is a public broadcaster. We should be looking for a public broadcaster to look at a variety of interests—ethical and spiritual different age groups and the like. That is something commercial radio stations frequently do not do because that is not where their dollars are. That is not what their charter if one can call it that—the financial incentive—covers. I am not knocking the financial incentive. I am absolutely in favour of advertising being the driving force of commercial interests but I am suggesting that there is a place for a State-sponsored radio station to provide those things that other outlets simply cannot do. 
The last amendment of substance requires Radio New Zealand annually to survey not just its existing audience but also attitudes amongst those who do not currently listen to Radio New Zealand. 
Some of the charter prescriptions do seem a little bit woolly but that is actually their strength in some ways. They should not be seen as prescriptive. They are really just an acknowledgment of aspects of our lives other than just the material. The broadcasting mandate of Radio New Zealand is the public and whether we like it or not the public do have spiritual and ethical values. Those against these provisions have the difficulty of providing a rationale against the use of the words “spiritual” and “ethical”. It is not driving a particular dogma down anybody’s throat; it is simply recognising that aspect of society which sometimes goes unacknowledged by the market-driven providers of radio. I am surprised that those who want to place for example Treaty of Waitangi obligations in legislation can possibly be against the lesser consideration of that which is spiritual or ethical. Is that not the basis of Maori Television—something we are actually against? But I do not think we can complain too much about the provision of both spiritual and ethical development; too much time has been spent debating that particular issue. 
The amendment to the Radio New Zealand charter brings some consistency in terms of the programming requirements for two publicly owned broadcasting media—Television New Zealand’s charter and now the charter of Radio New Zealand. It brings consistency to both. Clause 3(2) requires Radio New Zealand to provide programming that caters to “a full range of age groups” and it is particularly pleasing that that provision is included as it will ensure that Radio New Zealand provides programming that is specific to child listeners and not just to the elderly. 
One of the ongoing issues on which we have sought resolution is the issue of accountability by Radio New Zealand to its public. That is something that for private providers is accomplished through the market mechanism. This bill requires Radio New Zealand to survey not just its audience but also its non-audience so that it might delineate the wishes of the rest of the radio-listening public provide for their interests and attract new listeners accordingly. This amendment is a commendable attempt; however we are severely disappointed that the Commerce Committee has remained too timid to deal with the real issues surrounding Radio New Zealand’s surveys. It is however an operational matter; nevertheless it should compete on a level playing field. An ACNielsen survey recently found that one in five radio listeners listened to either National Radio or Concert FM. It would be very interesting indeed to see if a comparison with the monthly commercial radio surveys showed there is consistent listenership of Radio New Zealand yet we do not know that because Radio New Zealand has decided not to take part in the industry’s standard surveys. Why not? It should. The select committee has gone so far as specifying that Radio New Zealand must undertake annual surveys of its audience of a quantitative and qualitative nature; it would have been easier to specify that Radio New Zealand take part in regular industry-wide radio audience surveys. It is disappointing that the committee has not addressed that and accordingly I think Radio New Zealand will continue to kid itself about its true level of public support until it faces reality and subjects itself to the scrutiny of the regular industry-wide surveys. It is that point that I am surprised has not been picked up to a much greater extent by the Opposition. 
United Future will be supporting this bill. However that support is with some reservation.