11. Question No. 11—Broadcasting Communications and Digital MediaMELISSA LEE (National) to the Minister of Broadcasting Communications and Digital MediaQuestion No. 11—Broadcasting Communications and Digital Media11. MELISSA LEE (National) to the Minister of Broadcasting Communications and Digital Media: Does he stand by all his actions and policies?Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Broadcasting Communications and Digital Media): In the context in which they were given yes. In particular I stand by my statement that New Zealanders must have access to a strong and independent public media service for the decades to come. This will ensure that New Zealand audiences will have access to content which reflects the language and experiences of New Zealanders including those currently underserved audiences. In Budget 2018 we increased public media funding by $15 million. In Budget 2019 we increased Radio New Zealand's (RNZ) baseline by a further $7.25 million. This was in direct contrast to the previous Government's nine years of funding freezing for public media.Melissa Lee: When was he first made aware of RNZ's plan for the axing of RNZ Concert and the removal of its broadcasting from the FM frequency in favour of a youth radio station?SPEAKER: Order! I'm going to let this question go but warn members that in future when they're asking about actions and policies the supplementary question has to relate to that.Hon KRIS FAAFOI: I was briefed by Radio New Zealand that they were working on a youth strategy in August and October of 2019. They brought their final proposal around the youth strategy and the impacts of that to me on 29 January of this year. As has been said publicly I raised a number of concerns with them; most substantively was the issue of moving Radio New Zealand Concert off its current frequency of 93.5 FM. I said I would go and work on making sure that their youth strategy could have another alternative frequency to operate on and that's what I did.Melissa Lee: Why did he say and I quote It's not for the Government to decide what it's utilised for." in regards to the youth radio spectrum when the Prime Minister has said "[The new frequency] was always intended for youth radio and youth programming"?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: Because that question that the member herself asked me at the select committee in June of last year pertained to frequency for both Māori and youth. In my reading of the transcript I was saying that it wasn't for Government alone to decide how the spectrum should be used. Both of those 103 and 102 frequencies are assigned for Māori purposes or the 102 for a youth network strategy and in one of those it's not for Government alone to dictate exactly how that spectrum is allocated or used.Melissa Lee: Does he agree with the statement by former Prime Minister the Rt Hon Helen Clark that the Concert FM issue has been and I quote "handled disastrously"; if so does he accept responsibility for this disastrous handling?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: It's very important that Governments keep away from operational decisions that public broadcasters make and the decision to run a consultation with their staff around a youth network strategy was theirs. They have subsequently taken action to keep Concert FM where it is. The former Prime Minister is entitled to her opinion."