Television New Zealand Amendment Bill

We move now to Part 2, clauses 12 to 14. I say to members that we have had the philosophical debate. I ask members to debate clauses 12 to 14.

There has been quite a lot of philosophical discussion. There has been a lot of heated discussion, and I think we have seen in this debate some fundamentally different philosophical positions on the Television New Zealand Amendment Bill reflected in the Committee. Some fundamentally important positions go to the heart of what public broadcasting is in New Zealand: the content of public broadcasting, the content of broadcasting, and how people receive it.

In Part 2 of this bill we see the discussion about the rescreening of television programmes produced prior to 1989. We are seeing a claim that it is in the public interest that the programmes be seen again. I refer again to the concept of public interest, because it is a critical concept and it shows the differences between the major parties and the philosophical, fundamental divide we have on these issues.

Although Television New Zealand has now launched its Heartland channel, which screens programmes from our past, it is exclusively for Sky to screen heritage programming. We are seeing, and we have heard today from the Minister in the chair, the Minister of Broadcasting, the future for broadcasting in this country. The important programmes that reflect our culture and past and what goes to the heart of what and who we are will end up in locked-up content that people have to pay to see. That is a critical, fundamental issue and I think we need to have a debate about it.

An estimated 2 million households in New Zealand do not get Sky. That is quite a lot of households, when one thinks about it; it is about half. The ones who do pay for it—

The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy): There are three clauses in Part 2: “Spent sections of principal Act repealed”, “Amendment to Copyright Act 1994”, and a clause regarding access to archives. That is what we are debating.

I raise a point of order, Mr Chairperson. I am talking about the archived works and the ability to see them on television. I think it is quite clear that that is what I am talking about.

The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy): I will hear the member.

I refer again to public interest. When those heritage programmes were made we were all paying licence fees for public television. The public had already paid for the production of those programmes through their fees and taxes. Those programmes are owned by the public of New Zealand, and they should be seen by the public of New Zealand, not just some of the public of New Zealand through a pay television channel. That is one of the key issues we are addressing in the bill with regard to the viewing of archived works and how they are seen by the public.

I note the comments of the member from the Greens, Sue Kedgley. She talked about the future that we are looking at as a country, in terms of how we will view content. She talked about the ultimate plan that this Government has for us to see content, and about whether it is archive content, which is covered under Part 2 of the bill, or whether it will cover more than the archived works and will end up being most of our content.

The other point I will make, because it is important, is that most of the content that New Zealanders will end up watching will come from overseas. Less content will be produced here, because the television channels are driven by commercial imperatives—particularly Television New Zealand, which is being required to return a particular dividend to the Government—and have to find programmes they can get a commercial return on. Therefore, the quality programmes that reflect the distinctive Kiwi sense of humour—the Fred Daggs, the Lynnes of Tawa, the David McPhails—

I will particularly focus on the new section 57A, “Making archived works available for public viewing”, which is to be inserted in the Copyright Act by clause 14. I will pick up from where Clare Curran left off. It is fantastic that some of the wonderful programmes made by Television New Zealand will be made available for public viewing.

I worked at Television New Zealand myself and made a number of programmes over a number of years, and I worked there in the days when it genuinely was public service television. Then we had commercials on some days, then they were allowed every day except for Sunday, and then slowly we went into full commercialisation. But I had the privilege of working there when it was genuinely a public service broadcaster. Fantastic programmes were made then that New Zealanders would dearly love to see.

But will New Zealanders see these wonderful archived materials on Television One or TV2? No, they will not, because from now on the sole criterion for whether Television New Zealand will screen a programme on Television One and TV2 will be the ratings. It will be how many ratings and what advertisements programmes will attract. Television One and TV2 will not screen these wonderful programmes, because they will not rate like some of those blockbusters from America. The reason only 17 percent of the content on TV2 is New Zealand content is that, quite frankly, it is a lot cheaper to import blockbusters from America, those action programmes, than it is to make New Zealand programmes. That is why we will see fewer and fewer New Zealand programmes on Television One and TV2. These channels will basically become not only commercial television but also foreign television. We will have two New Zealand - owned channels—that is, until such time as the Government sells them—screening commercial, foreign content.

What we will not see on Television One and TV2 is the wonderful archival material that was made at a time when Television New Zealand was able to focus on the public interest and when Television New Zealand was able to make major current affairs programmes, such as Brian Edwards’ programmes. For many years the whole nation sat watching these current affairs programmes, and they were influencing the debate in New Zealand. Where are the in-depth current affairs programmes on Television New Zealand? Well, sure, we have Close Up, but the constant mantra of Close Up is: “I am sorry, we have run out of time.” The current affairs issues of the day are all dealt with in 2-minute—or 5-minute, if they are later—segments, and people are constantly having to wring their hands and say that they are sorry as they have run out of time.

Unfortunately, the wonderful archival material that would show us what public service television can be like and what it is like—the wonderful documentaries—will not be shown. When I worked at Television New Zealand, there was a whole documentary department that did nothing but make fantastic documentaries, like Pioneer Women. Wonderful archival material is sitting there in the Television New Zealand archives and it will never be screened on Television New Zealand, because Television New Zealand has no public service obligation. It now exists solely to make money for the shareholder. It will screen programmes only if they can maximise advertising revenue, so the whole point of having these wonderful archive materials and of allowing their copyright to be waived so that they can be screened on television is missed, unfortunately. It is ironic, but in the same bill is the reason why those programmes will not be shown on Television One or TV2, the publicly owned television channels. Those channels will now be solely commercial and they will be worried that those programmes will not rate.

I started my career as a young broadcast journalist with what was still the NZBC and I also remember—

Progress reported.

Report adopted.

The House adjourned at 5.55 p.m.