Kedgley Sue: Television New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Kedgley Sue: Television New Zealand Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:672;Page:18768] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 When the Television New Zealand Amendment Bill comes into force—I think that is the terminology—and receives the Royal assent New Zealand will lose our public service broadcasting channel. We will be the only country in the Western world with the exception of Mexico that does not have a mainstream public service television channel. TVNZ will exist for the sole purpose of returning a profit and a dividend to the Government. We have to ask what the point is in a State-owned broadcaster that has no public service functions or responsibilities. What is the point? We predict that once this bill comes into effect we will see less and less New Zealand content on television because TVNZ will exist to chase ratings to make money and to return a profit. It will be indistinguishable from any other commercial broadcaster. It will not make New Zealand programmes. Why not? For the simple reason that it is much cheaper to import foreign programmes so there will be less and less New Zealand content. 
In fact we will probably see so few New Zealand programmes on TVNZ that people will be forced to look to the archives to try to get some New Zealand content. All of the discussion about the wonderful programmes that were made by TVNZ that are lodged in the archive at Avalon made me realise that a number of programmes that I made will be in the archives at Avalon: three television documentaries that I made will be lodged there in the archives and the whole series of  
That’s Fairly Interesting 
—a programme about quirky events that were happening in New Zealand at the time. Those are historical programmes that people would love to see. There is no equivalent to those programmes now being made by TVNZ so people will be very keen to look at those archival New Zealand programmes because we will see fewer and fewer New Zealand programmes on air. 
The irony is that those wonderful archival programmes will not be screened on TVNZ whatever the Minister says because the sole mandate of TVNZ is to chase ratings—not to show programmes for the public interest but only for the commercial interest. It will only be showing programmes that the sales department approves because they attract advertising and those wonderful archival materials and programmes that we have been talking about tonight will not be screened on TVNZ because they will not attract the advertisers so the sales department will not be interested. 
So we will join the shameful ranks with Mexico of countries having no public service broadcasting. Once this has gone through the Government will turn its mind towards weakening and undermining our other public service broadcaster Radio New Zealand. The intention of the Minister is to starve Radio New Zealand of funding weaken the organisation put it on the back foot and force it to commercialise. The agenda is absolutely clear and absolutely blatant because this Government and this Minister do not understand the importance or value of public service television or even of free-to-air television. It understands only commercial television. It understands supporting its friends and its mates in commercial broadcasting and in Sky television. 
I believe that in time we may very well see in New Zealand only paid television—within a short period of time—and we may find only one or perhaps two television channels foreign-owned channels owned by people like Rupert Murdoch and no public service broadcasting. This will have a significant impact on the identity of New Zealand on who we are because we will end up watching the equivalent of Fox Television. That is what will be available in New Zealand and that will have an impact on our identity as a nation as well as on the quality of our television.