Mediawatch What are the political parties' plans for media?
The media have been a political football this year - and now some politicians are complaining the media are against them in this election. But hundreds of millions of dollars of public money is spent on media each year - so what do the political parties plan for the media if they're in power?
The media have been a political football this year - and now some politicians are complaining the media are against them in this election.
But hundreds of millions of dollars of public money is spent on media each year - so what do the political parties plan for the media if they are in power?
In a combative and cranky interview last weekend on the TVNZ Q+A show, NZ First leader Winston Peters claimed presenter Jack Tame was biased - and he said the bosses at the state-owned broadcaster wanted it that way.
He also claimed this was part of a campaign to keep NZ First out of government and that Tame "and his masters" had made a good case for NZ First having the broadcasting portfolio after the election.
"Just an idea," he said teasingly when asked if it was a kind of threat.
Earlier in the election campaign Peters had singled out Newshub and Stuff and said that the absence of an honest fourth estate - coupled with co-governance - had left "our democracy hanging by a thread".
The NZ First website carries a strident call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into media bias and manipulation in New Zealand - and a petition with about 5000 signatures.
The pattern in past election campaigns is broadcasting and media plans are often left to the last minute - or overlooked entirely as our political parties push policies on big-ticket issues like tax, health and education.
But while media policy is not seen as a real vote-winner grabber by most parties, our media are important and influential - and also partly state-owned. Over the past decade, spending on media by successive governments has increased to more than a quarter of a billion dollars a year - and rising.
What do the parties have planned this time around?
Labour's plan for the future was built on the merger of TVNZ and RNZ in a new public media entity funded with an extra $107 million a year until 2026. But just weeks before the new entity was supposed to come into being the government scrapped that plan.
There is nothing specific in the party's policy for this election, but Labour's post-merger Plan B is a $25m a year boost to RNZ, $10m for the government broadcasting funding agency NZ on Air and substantial funding increases announced in Budget 2022 and 2023 for Māori broadcasting. …