Parker David: Television New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Parker David: Television New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Chairman. [ 
Interruption 
] Good looks always win—I joke. 
Actions speak louder than words and with this Television New Zealand Amendment Bill the National-led Government shows its stripes when it comes to public broadcasting. In this bill it removes the charter which was one of the attempts made by the prior Government to maintain at least a modicum of public broadcast ethic within Television New Zealand. I for one do not think we succeeded totally in that task and I do not think we have heard anyone from this side say that we had it completely right with Television New Zealand but removing the charter is going in the wrong direction and it is part of the intent of this Government to strip Television New Zealand of its public-good broadcasting functions. 
I think we should also at this time reflect on other steps that the Government has taken in that regard. This bill and the Government’s actions under it are consistent with what it is doing with TVNZ 7. I am aware that there was a proposal from Television New Zealand to extend the funding of public broadcasting by keeping TVNZ 7 running. TVNZ 7 has been producing a good number of the public-interest broadcasts being produced by or for Television New Zealand and they are screened free to air through TVNZ 7. There were suggestions at different times that TVNZ 7 perhaps together with Radio New Zealand could provide the basis for some good quality free-to-air broadcasting in New Zealand. As my colleague Charles Chauvel said to me as we were chatting before I spoke it is important that we have a public broadcaster in New Zealand that maintains a modicum of good quality intelligent broadcasting and I agree with that. The trend is for ever more reality TV shows ever more imported content and ever more pushing of the boundaries as to violence and sexual content as broadcasters compete for market share and the dumbing down of what we feed New Zealanders and through that the diminution of the standard of discourse that we have in society. So I think that broadcast television is in a poor state and getting worse under this Government and this bill is merely part of that decline. 
It saddens me that we come to clauses 1 2 and 3 of the Television New Zealand Amendment Bill which amend the Television New Zealand legislation because they signal a slide towards mediocrity a slide towards more substandard TV and a slide to more of the same being produced on all of our television channels. That is not to say that commercial television does not have a place; it most clearly does and increasingly a dominant place in New Zealand. But there is a state of change in the television industry. We hear reports that CanWest the owner of the TV3 network and some other radio organisations is in trouble because it paid too much in the recent— 
Charles Chauvel 
: Radio Live. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Radio Live. There was an overseas buy-out where private equity bought into those institutions and paid far too much money. They are carrying very high levels of debt. They were in such difficulty that the Government had to give them a loan in respect of their frequency fees last year. 
Charles Chauvel 
: It’s still not going to save them. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: And rumour has it that that is still not going to save them. That part of the public broadcasting— 
Hon Rick Barker 
: The Government is bailing out the private sector. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Well it is interesting that the Government did give support to the private sector there in a way yet it would not support TVNZ 7 when it required some assistance. 
Hon Member 
: It ran out of funding. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: We hear from the other side that it ran out of money. Yes it is true that its funding lines were originally set up for 3 years but of course most Budget lines are for a limited period of years and it was for the Government to decide whether it thought it was of sufficient priority. TVNZ 7 is very cost-effective. I think the proposals that came forward from Television New Zealand which I understand were supported by some of the Ministers in the current Government but Mr Joyce intervened to kill—[ 
Bell rung 
] Mr Chairman. 
ijp 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: David Parker. 
Hon Rick Barker 
: Very good call Mr Chairman. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: It was the only one. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Mr Joyce intervened to ensure the proposals did not proceed which I think was sad for New Zealand. It would have taken only a bit of vision. I think Television New Zealand was under the charter trying to do the right thing through TVNZ 7 which was probably the greatest innovation in public broadcasting in the last few years. I think the proposals brought forward by Television New Zealand to continue that part of free-to-air public broadcasting were worthy of support and I am saddened that they were not supported by the Government. 
But I am not surprised when I read this bill because this bill removes as has been said the charter. It is at times depressing to so often have to be negative in this House about the legislative agenda of the Government. Most Opposition members—indeed all Opposition members—are not in our DNA negative people. We would much rather be talking about positive things but sadly it is the role of the Opposition to point out mistakes made by the Government and this is one of them. So when I rise to speak in respect of this bill I cannot really say much else. I thought the Green Party in its minority select committee report said it well in the first sentence: “The Green Party opposes the TVNZ Amendment Bill because it strips Television New Zealand of its charter and its public service obligations and responsibilities.” That essentially is what this bill does and that is why we oppose it. We have said that in our own words as prior speakers have said. 
It saddens me that we are seeing not only the demise of TVNZ 7 but the charter stripped away from Television New Zealand. We will see more and more low-quality reality TV shows which I do not really think add much to society. We will see more and more people—those who can afford to—subscribing to Sky. Good programmes are at times shown on Sky but they are not readily available to most New Zealanders because they cannot afford to subscribe to Sky or choose to prioritise other things. They are left with reliance on Television New Zealand and unfortunately what they get fed through Television New Zealand has over the decades become more populist and more about chasing ratings rather than delivering programmes that would perhaps add to society. So we are seeing less current affairs we are seeing less documentaries— 
Hon Rick Barker 
: Fewer. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: —fewer documentaries I should say—and fewer quality political shows. The political shows that there are now are on Sunday mornings. They are not in the prime slots that they used to be in yesteryear when there was good analysis of Government policy. I can understand why the Government does not want that. Its policies do not withstand scrutiny and it would not want the public to understand how New Zealand is going backward under its watch. 
I am sad that this bill will be passed tonight by the National majority with support from either ACT or the Maori Party. That is about all I will say.