You know already National opposes the $370million wasteful spend that the Government thinks is the future of New Zealand’s public broadcasters.

Every submission highlighting your concerns is welcomed by me and the National Team so please write into the EDSI Committee and have your say.

The legislation is vague. The cost is massive.

We don’t even have the benefit of knowing what the financials will be for any revenue gains long-term with the Minister hiding behind the wall of OIA redactions and Commercial sensitivity when hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are spent as inflation continues to hit our pockets.

The reality, a Public Media monolith, is dire and the Government’s own independent advice from Sapere has made it clear it’s not needed.

The merger and blurring of RNZ and TVNZ into ANZPM will not only ensure, during a cost-of-living crisis, that the Labour Government re-prioritised consultants for their mates over actual content, actual decisions and real outcomes for New Zealand’s media future but also permanently change New Zealand’s media landscape in a way that it will take years to unravel.

I am passionate about New Zealand’s broadcasting and media sector and I know that it’s future is not being corralled into a media monolith while other competitors wither and die and New Zealanders continue looking offshore for the content they desire alongside the talent choosing international destinations for their careers instead of homegrown production houses.

The next generation of New Zealand audiences simply doesn’t get media and broadcasting content from our public sector. It chooses innovation, ideas and imagination. It doesn’t care where they come from or who has funded it. We need to think about media as platform neutral and flexible. We need to think about supporting media not in terms of $$$ but in better regulations, in growing an economy that supports best practices and a platform neutral approach to content funding over feeding whatever comes along just from the public purse with little accountability.

A Public Media Monolith guarantees the latter and discourages the former.

I hope you take the time to submit on the Bill. I hope you take time to understand the implications of a merged RNZ and TVNZ. I hope you will talk with your friends and family about this and encourage them to also have their say. I can ask the questions, I can challenge the Ministers (past and present) but ultimately, the voice of the people of New Zealand is what is most important to stop the Public Media Monolith and to stop the spend.

Comments sections on blogs and news articles, for better or worse, are no replacement for your voice to New Zealand’s Parliament through the official submissions process so we need your help. There’s less than a month to go before submissions close and the Government is moving at full pace to ensure the disestablishment of RNZ and TVNZ happens before National returns to Government, they want it done and dusted by March next year.

Here is the link: https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/make-a-submission/document/53SCED_SCF_BILL_125298/aotearoa-new-zealand-public-media-bill

Thank you for your views whatever they may be. I look forward to hearing what you have to say!