te Heuheu Georgina: Budget Debate 
te Heuheu Georgina: Budget Debate 
[Volume:631;Page:3375] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 I note that the member although she talked a lot about the health of New Zealanders made not one mention of the long-term cost of people being culled from waiting lists—of New Zealanders being culled from waiting lists in their thousands. There is not one word about those waiting lists in this Budget but then this is the Budget of an arrogant Government—the same as last year—that thinks it knows best how to spend the hard-earned taxes of ordinary New Zealanders up and down the country. 
Those of us on the Maori Affairs Committee this morning witnessed the height of arrogance and ignorance in the Budget planning process. We were told by the Minister of Maori Affairs—after he was forced in the end to confirm it—that he as Minister had not made one bid in the current Budget round for new funding. He had not put in a bid for new funding in the Budget process. That has to be a first—a Minister of the Crown not making a bid for new funding. I doubt whether there has ever been a Minister who has not done that. This is a Minister who says his mission is to realise Maori potential but who did not make a bid in the Budget round for new funding. Shame on him! It will be the first time ever. He is probably the first Minister ever to behave in that way. He should resign. 
I come now to the broadcasting portfolio and say I am not surprised that the Hon Steve Maharey is not going to talk about his contribution to the Budget round in respect of broadcasting. As we see he has managed to get a measly $24 million over the next 4 years most of which is going to NZ On Air for more local programming. No doubt New Zealanders will welcome that but we would have thought that this Government and Minister Maharey might have had the brains to work out since they talk so much about unbundling and how they are going to move New Zealand forward—we will wait and see what happens there—that an ideal way to “sex up” their Budget would be to tell us what they are doing about the introduction of the digital platform. But do we see anything at all in the Budget that refers to the introduction of the digital platform? No—absolutely not! I would have thought that Minister Maharey might have had more going for him and that he might have grabbed the opportunity to say: “Right there was a big balls-upon the great leak the Telecom leak. There’s a great hole in this Budget so why don’t we tell the public in this Budget about the appropriations we are making”—if indeed there are some to be made—“and that we are going to have the digital platform with TVNZ on digital within months.” But no he is too smarmy. He sat there all last year which was a disastrous year in broadcasting in terms of TVNZ. 
Let us look at what happened to the company last year. It experienced a sharply reduced dividend; falling ratings; viewers deserting to TV3 and other channels; viewers signing up in droves to Sky television because that is where the digital is but there is none in the offing from the Government; high-profile presenters departing under dubious circumstances; and a culture of extravagance that was still alive and well when we came into the new year. Worst of all that organisation of the State had a finding of contempt made against it. 
It was a disastrous year for television broadcasting under Minister Maharey. He sat on his hands and literally did nothing to curb the disastrous year for TVNZ. Now he still seems to be doing nothing to reassure New Zealanders that indeed we are going to be brought into the age of digital TV. There was not one mention about that in the Budget. As I say it was his opportunity to sex this Budget up. He missed it. It is a wonder nobody else did. Maybe the Minister of Maori Affairs should have seen the opportunity. Given that he struggled over the questions that were put to him this morning in the select committee where he did not seem to know what the Budget process was all about anyway I do not think we can look to him to sex any Budget up. But I would have thought that Steve Maharey given his looks and the fact that the Speaker at one stage I think indicated that she thought he was quite pretty would have the nous to do something exciting in the broadcasting area. He could have told us what all the months of consultation the work of the free-to-air broadcasters with their digital group and others had achieved. The Minister himself has been making regular statements saying: “We’ll have digital on the way.” but there was not one mention of it in the Budget. 
That is an indictment on the Minister who presided over a disastrous year—indeed years—for TVNZ and we now watch while New Zealanders leave in their droves and sign up to Sky television. Whether the new board is going to reverse the situation who knows. Unless the Minister is able to somehow give us some indication soon of when the digital platform is to be introduced there will be no viewers left. He has sat on his hands for all of the last 2 years with a group out there supposedly working on it—such as Jo Tyndall seconded from New Zealand On Air to the ministry. No doubt she is busy busy working on something although we do not know what we have not been able to get any information out of the Minister on how far advanced the digital platform is. What are they doing? What does the Minister intend to do? 
Broadband may or may not come. It suffered a huge set-back with the great “leaker” from the Prime Minister’s office. That left a big hole in the Budget. Nothing has been put there to fill that hole and that is an indication of an arrogant Government that daily is putting more and more New Zealanders on benefits as a cynical vote-gathering exercise because that is all it is. In the meantime New Zealand slides down the ladder of economic prosperity productivity and economic growth. 
We have a Minister who had absolutely nothing in the Budget in the broadcasting arena other than a bit more funding for New Zealand On Air but nothing about the biggest challenge facing television broadcasting—that is the introduction of a digital platform. I am talking about the missing-in-action digital strategy a whole lot of work going on for years a whole lot of people who have busied themselves on this and still absolutely nothing in the Budget. The Minister should fold his hands pack his bag and give the thing to someone else. Unfortunately so many on the Government side are on notice. Who would he give it to? Mr Cunliffe the great hope in the techno area goodness me the poor thing he had to see his flower of the Budget leaked to the public with Telecom losing millions off its share price. So he could not give it to Mr Cunliffe. So many of the Government members seem to be on notice who could he give broadcasting to? 
Broadcasting received approximately $24 million but there was not a whisper not one word about the introduction of the digital platform. Do we live in the digital age or not? The Government seems to think we do not.