Curran Clare: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCurran Clare: Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 10 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9645. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South): This is a historic day. It has been a historic day on a number of counts. We saw a bill pass through its third reading earlier today that abolishes zero-hour contracts which is a historic occurrence. With this bill the Radio New Zealand Amendment Bill we have the third reading finally of a bill that has been sitting on the Order Paper since 2009.It is a simple bill. It follows a statutory requirement to review the Radio New Zealand charter every 5 years. The review of the charter that we are talking about in this bill tonight began in 2005 so that is 10 years ago. The statutory requirement is to have that charter reviewed at 5-yearly intervals. So right now given that this legislation was introduced following a review that started in 2005 we should be on to not the next review but the one after that. We have actually skipped two reviews. I think that is a fairly extraordinary occurrence because ultimately not only has the Minister not seen through the fulfilment of a statutory duty but also we have got a review that has happened that is 10 years old. Yes there was a substantial amendment that the Minister put to the Committee of the whole House with no ability for there to be a select committee process and discussion around it. In fact tonight the Minister has made really the only comments on that substantial amendment that we have heard from the Government. Really it has been a bit of a shambles. It has been an extraordinary passage. It is probably since this Government has been in power one of the bills that has sat on the Order Paper for the longest before it has actually been through all of its readings in the House.Labour supports the bill because it is a review of the Radio New Zealand charter. It was a review as I said that began in 2005 under the previous Labour Government so of course we support it. What we do have concerns about is that what it really shows is a lack of commitment by this Government to public broadcasting and to the important processes that we need to keep putting in place. We needed to have done not only a review from 2005 but also two more reviews since then so that we can be reassured that what we are seeing in this bill is as up to date as possible. I think that the people listening at home tonight should be aware of that.The Minister has been full of praise for Radio New Zealand but what the Minister does not say is that Radio New Zealand is under more and more pressure to deliver quality content in a funding environment that is going backwards. It has recorded a deficit this year. It has been in a funding freeze since 2009 which ultimately represents a cut in its funding of around 25 percent. Radio New Zealand is doing its best and is doing very well under the circumstances at providing quality services in such an environment but people should be very aware that it is operating in a very difficult environment. It is making that transition towards becoming a multimedia broadcaster and operating on multimedia platforms and it has made that transition very well with the new Checkpoint programme largely because of the talent it has and the vision that its chief executive Paul Thompson has for the organisation. But it is doing that in a very difficult environment and one that this Government has no desire or intention to improve when it comes to New Zealand’s important and only public broadcasting platform which is doing its best to become a multimedia platform.This is why it is so curious that the board chair refused to go to the Government in this Budget round and ask for extra funding. It is curious and sad and members of the Commerce Committee were moved to ask whether Radio New Zealand has given up. I do not think Radio New Zealand has given up but I think it is operating in very very difficult circumstances. Everybody listening tonight should be aware of that and should be asking questions as to why that is so and what this Government is going to do about it.The bill before us tonightfollows as we know a review of the Radio New Zealand charter in 2005.Debate interrupted.