Rich Katherine: Television New Zealand Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Rich Katherine: Television New Zealand Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:606;Page:3730] 
KATHERINE RICH (NZ National) 
: 
 Once again I rise to speak to the bill. I suspect that the Minister in the chair Steve Maharey as he looks at the commencement date listed in the bill must more or less hold his head in shame because the bill states: “The Act comes into force on 1 July 2001.” That is when the charter was supposed to come into effect. 
Hon David Carter 
: John Tamihere would have got it done in time. 
KATHERINE RICH 
: He would have got it done in time—quite clearly so. The commencement date is 1 July 2001 and here we are some 19 months later talking about this bill now. We are into the fourth year of talking about the charter the fourth year of discussing this bill. Now the Government is bringing in at the Committee stage changes that make the bill quite radically different from the bill that the Commerce Committee looked at. 
This part sets out the purpose of the Act. Once again things have changed dramatically. It was intended that there be no split of BCL from Television New Zealand. Unlike Marc Alexander who spoke before I do not see having the two parts of the organisation together as cannibalistic. There are some good reasons for having the two organisations together. BCL is a very profitable organisation and a lot of the profits from that particular part of the company have been able to be directed into the production of local content. That will not be possible now. If we are to look at the good sides of cross-subsidisation that was one. 
Now BCL is going to be split off. That is a total about-face by the Government but it has nothing to do with United Future. It has more to do with the fact that the Alliance is now no longer an important part of the Government. We all know that keeping the two organisations together was Jim Anderton’s goal. 
In terms of splitting off BCL and the changes that are outlined in the Supplementary Order Paper from the Government I would like to take the Committee back to some comments made by the Minister when he was being interviewed on Media Watch. At the time the Minister was asked: “So the elements of the structure we have now—two commercial channels with BCL part of the same entity—that’s set in stone?” Steve Maharey replied: “Yes.” 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: That’s one of the things you say as a Minister that you don’t really say. 
KATHERINE RICH 
: This was actually 25 August 2002; even back then he said it was set in stone. The second question was: “Now there’s no temptation now that you’ll possibly have the opportunity to split BCL as the Government has always wanted to?”. He responded: “No. I think as I say the die is cast there to get this legislation through.” That was said back in August 2002 and here we are further down the track with a bill that is dramatically different from the one that was discussed in the select committee and with these eleventh-hour changes. 
If we look at the purpose of the bill we see it aims to put in place the charter. We have a document that comprises probably fewer than 500 words. This Government has managed to deliver less than one word a day. Frankly I am sure that if my colleague Tony Ryall had put pen to paper he could have written the charter in half an hour. 
In terms of where we have to go to from here the purpose of the Act although set out there in black and white is still incredibly vague. It states that the television business has to give effect to the charter. I ask the Minister what “gives effect to” means. Does it mean “implement”? What does it mean in terms of the way this charter will be measured? Some years down the track we are still standing here without any idea of how this charter will be measured how much it will cost or how much impact it will have on the TVNZ business. The purpose of this Act is quite vague and really should have greater detail. 
Of course the Minister says that the $12 million that the Government has put into the provision of the charter will make a big difference. I remind the Committee that on the day that press release came out Annette King was making a comment about the health sector. She said that $10 million if my memory serves me correctly was a mere trickle.