Coleman Jonathan: Television New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Coleman Jonathan: Television New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:672;Page:18682] 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Broadcasting) 
: 
 I will address a few points that the member Brendon Burns made. He talked about some vast conspiracy theory whereby the Government has a sweetheart deal with MediaWorks. Well clearly this man does not watch TV3 news each night because if we have a sweetheart deal for some sort of editorial control over MediaWorks then frankly we are not getting our side of the deal! I must say I think MediaWorks does an excellent job of impartially reporting the news. The Opposition’s conspiracy theory is to try to make out there is some sort of sweetheart deal between the Government and MediaWorks. The fact is these Opposition guys are way off the ball way off the play. When we put forward the deferred payment scheme for radio frequencies which was open to all radio broadcasters Steven Joyce issued a press release—I think it was last October—but these guys missed it completely. It was out there publicly; it has never been any secret. MediaWorks is paying 11.5 percent under the deferred payment scheme which was open to anyone. These guys are so slow and so backward that they had to wait until John Drinnan wrote about it 8 or 9 months later before these guys who are so bereft of ideas even picked up on it. 
Mr Burns talked about broadcasting regulation and said it was very bad that we cancelled the broadcasting review. Frankly it was redundant. He neglected to say the last Government sat on that review for months and months. It did nothing about it because it did not want to do anything about it. Labour Government members knew there would be a binary outcome—they would either win or lose the 2008 election—and they did not want the political baggage of progressing that report before the election. They knew how unpopular it would be with broadcasters and the public so they thought they would do nothing. They knew they would probably lose the 2008 election which they duly did. Then when the National Government cancelled what the Labour Government had never had the guts to push through those members got upset and said that National had pandered to the broadcasters. Well if they had really believed in it they would have pushed it through. 
Another point I will make concerns Mr Burns wanting a public broadcaster. Television New Zealand costs about $300 million give or take a few tens of millions of dollars to run each year. It has been 93 percent commercially funded for many many years. This removal of the charter recognises that reality. It sounds as if Labour will find $300 million of public money to fund a fully public non-commercial State broadcaster because that is the alternative to what we have proposed. But once again all that Labour will do is attack. It will not put up anything that would be constructive. 
Frankly the attack on Maori Television in Mr Burns’ speech was just ridiculous. When special events are proposed NZ On Air money is available and the broadcasters all compete for access to that money. Maori Television has done an excellent job. It has done a great job on things like Anzac Day programmes. It has put its best foot forward and it has won the contract for that. We really do need to have a bit of clarity about what has actually gone on there. We have a very honest policy on this issue. TVNZ has always been commercial. Why should we not be honest about it and remove the charter? That is what we are doing. 
The other thing I will address is the misinformation about meetings with boards over the last year or so. I have not been to nine MediaWorks board meetings. I have been to more than two Radio New Zealand board meetings in my time as Minister. I have met with the TVNZ board so many times that I cannot even remember how many times I have met with its members. We meet people right across the spectrum. I am in regular contact with board chairs and chief executives of all the major public broadcasters covered by my portfolio and to suggest that any sort of sweetheart deal has gone on for MediaWorks is absolutely the sort of wild conspiracy theory that Labour members pursue and pursue in the hope that it will get traction with the public. I can tell the Committee that the voters out there in New Zealand—the voters in Northcote and Glenfield the area I represent—are interested in law and order hospitals and the economy not the mumbo-jumbo these guys are spouting or anything they have laid out here today. It will not get any traction with anyone because at the end of the day in terms of television people want just to be able to see what they want when they want to see it. They do not care what channel it is on. This policy here makes sure that the content is available for the people of New Zealand.