There’s one last chance for television this morning. Q & A starts at 9am.
A media release from TVNZ says:
We speak to the Government’s Mr Fix It, Steven Joyce, about the deals with Novopay and SkyCity, and question how committed the government is to creating new jobs.
Also on the programme, should marriage be solely between a man and woman; we hear from a gay couple who question why they’re being treated as second class citizens. We debate the same-sex marriage bill with Labour MP Louisa Wall and Conservative Party Leader Colin Craig, and ask if gay couples should be able to adopt.
On the panel this week is political scientist Dr Raymond Miller, publisher Ian Wishart, and former Labour party candidate Josie Pagani.
Join host Susan Wood and political editor Corin Dann on Q+A at 9am this Sunday on TV One.
I probably won’t be. I have other things on my agenda this morning – as do most other people at 9am on Sunday. But I will try to catch up with what happened on MySky later in the hope that maybe one little corner of television thinks there is something happening in New Zealand which people ought to know about.
. . .there is a harsh reality to be faced, not only with Solid Energy (what’s a Govt trying to do in owning coal mines?) but with other state-owned entities whose profitability has shrunk: think of TVNZ, NZ Post, Kordia. Not surprisingly, Solid Energy’s troubles have thrown into relief how the Govt’s balance sheet, already structurally weak, can be pushed into dangerous territory by businesses where all the risks have to be shouldered by the taxpayer.
Opponents to the sales complain that the government will lose dividend income when up to 49% of shares in an SOE are sold.
They forget the risks and costs of ownership which ultimately fall on the taxpayer.
I’d rather have my taxes pay for core government responsibilities like defence, police, infrastructure, health and welfare than investment in areas best left to the private sector.
TVNZ, MediaWorks and Maori TV say they have reached an agreement on the compression technology that makes many advertisements so much louder than the programmes they interrupt. Sky TV has not formally signed on to the initiative but says it will support it.
The agreement kicks in January 1, but TVNZ says it will start Sunday. In a statement emailed to NBR ONLINE, CEO Kevin Kenrick said “we just want to get on with it”. The state broadcaster will foot the bill for adjusting the audio on ads already submitted.
Sounds good, but there’s a but:
Earlier, TVNZ’s general manager of technology Peter Ennis told NBR free-to-air broadcasters here had agreed to follow the International Telecommunications Union’s IITU 1770 recommendation, already widely adopted overseas by bodies such as the European Broadcasters’ Union.
But he added the qualifier, “It’s important to remember, however, that while these standards go some way towards reducing the perceived loudness differences between and within programme and advertising content it is unlikely that all differences will be eliminated, mainly because advertisers and TV creatives will continue to want to use dynamic range for effect.”. . .
In other words, they still want to yell at us.
Yet another selling point for MySky which lets you fast forward through the ads so you can avoid both sight and sound.
“I can’t tell you who the buyer will be but I can tell you the Overseas Investment Office won’t be involved,” said Dairy Holdings Chairman Bill Bayliss.
The New Zealand Super Fund is known to have expressed interest in Dairy Holdings and some say that would be a good outcome. . .
Clearly such an investment has been on the radar for the Super Fund. Chief executive Adrian Orr said in 2010 the fund had up to $500 million to invest in rural land over the next five years.
One of the arguments against the sale of the Crafar farms to the Chinese company Pengxin was that it would make farm ownership more difficult for young New Zealanders.
Will there will be a similar level of opposition to Dairy Holdings sale to the super fund for the same reasons?
Whether or not there is, I’m with Federated Farmers chief executive Conor English who says ownership isn’t the issue:
Federated Farmers says while there may be debate around foreign ownership of Kiwi farms – the most important outcome is good farm management.
“They’re managed well in terms of the environmental impact, in terms of economic impact, in terms of how they fit into the community,” said English.
The first two points matter to the whole country and the last one is very important for the neighbourhood.
. . . it seems the Maori Party do not want Dr Sharples as co-leader any more and his position will come up for grabs.
The male co-leadership will be contested by Te Ururoa Flavell – the only other male MP in the Maori Party.
Sharples said before the election that this would be his last term and it makes sense to hand the co-leadership over in plenty of time for his successor to make his mark.
But being happy to stand down is not the same as not being wanted, so is he jumping or being pushed?
Prime Minister John Key and Opposition leader Phil Goff have sensibly agreed that they will debate each other on television but not take part in the circus which will be the minor-party leaders’ debates.
However, the ODT (not online) reports another aspect to this story:
. . . a multiparty debate would be open to party leaders represented in Parliament, a TVNZ spokeswoman said party leaders not represented in parliament were required to reach a 3% threshold in at least one of the network’s two Colmar Brunton Polls.
National is up to 53% while Labour sheds seven points to 27%. The Greens take some of that vote, bouncing up to 10%, while Act and the Maori Party are both sitting around 3%.
New Zealand First (2.4%) would need to double its support to make it back, and the Mana Party (0.5%) and United Future (0.3%) are barely registering.
Last time I counted 2.4% was under 3%.
But I wouldn’t rule out its leader using this to his advantage, it wouldn’t be the first time he’s pulled the lone warrior against the establishment card.
Campaigning 101: a) stay on message. b) don’t take attention from the leader.
You could excuse Labour MPs for ignoring the first rule when the party hasn’t got much of a message to stay on. But flouting the second is either an act of deliberate sabotage or plain stupidity.
Then in another desperate attempt to gain attention he does a tabloid blog post. (I’m not going to link to it, but here’s Keeping Stock’s reaction.
Did Mallard fall on his head when he fell off his bike?
That might provide an explanation for what is bizarre behaviour for a senior MP but it’s no excuse for taking attention away from his leader who whichever poll you look at – NZ Herald, TV3, TVNZ, - needs all all the help he can get.
If he can’t depend on getting it from the party campaign manager who else is going to give it to him?
What’s the point of us owning two television stations when it’s difficult to tell the difference between them and the many others we could be watching?
Governments shouldn’t be in the ratings game – not on television anyway. If they want to run a television station, it should be an opinion leader, not a ratings leader.
Its brief should be to make sense, not money. It should provide what others do not. Its dividend should be social, not commercial.
Except it isn’t. Our public broadcasting arrangements are totally schizophrenic. The government’s radio station is non-commercial, worthy, high-minded and much loved by the chardonnay socialists in university common rooms.
But its television stations are hell-bent on being the biggest grizzlies in the bear pit, happy to serve up prole fodder at every opportunity. Every morning, Paul Henry outrages some and amuses others. Every night, Shortland Street explores themes that erode innocence and steal childhood.
And so it will stay till we resolve the conflict between content and cash. “How dare he say that?” Simple. He dares because it rates.
That’s how it is and will be until the government sells (or leases) TV2 and uses the proceeds to operate TV1 as a non-commercial station.
In the competition between content and cash the money will win on a commercial station.
Whether or not the state should own a TV station at all is a moot point.
But if we can’t tell the difference between the state owned stations and the others, the case for public ownership isn’t convincing.
As TVNZ celebrates 50 years of television here I wondered if programmes used to be any better than they are now?
Local programming – eg The South Tonight and The Mainland Touch – gave us something that’s missing today.
Current affairs programmes screened at better times, and in memory – if not in fact – were focussed more on information than entertainment than they are now.
Fred Dagg and Gliding On were the benchmarks for local comedy for me and I can’t even name any current ones.
As for drama, it’s so long since I sat and watched any I can’t comment on that either.
Prime Minister, John Key was asked to draw his version of an alternative NZ Flag by TVNZ’s Pippa Wetzell on Breakfast at 7:15am this morning.
By the time the programme went off-air at 9am, TVNZ had received many pledges of money for the A4 sized doodle, the highest being $1000. Mr Key gave his consent for the drawing to be auctioned for charity and it has been listed on Trade Me this afternoon with all proceeds going to the children’s charity, Cure Kids.
Mr Key described his drawing as a “silver fern”. Pippa Wetzell described it, perhaps more accurately, as a “lop-sided Christmas tree”.
In case there’s any doubt that this is the Prime Minister’s own work, here’s a screen shot of him drawing it:
And the video:
And how good is the doodle? Here (Hat Tip Kiwiblog) it is:
Watching TV at all, let alone a programme on politics, doesn’t usually feature on my list of things to do at 9am on Sundays.
However, programmers at TVNZ have stuck to last year’s scheduling time and that’s when Agenda Q&A will screen again.
It starts this Sunday. Phil Goff and Hone Harawira are the interviewees. Mike Moore and Jeanette Fitzsimons willl join resident polticial analyst Dr Therese Arseneau and Paul Holmes on the panel.
It’s a pity that it screens at 9 o’clock on Sunday mornings.
It doesn’t have a lot of competition. But if it’s the best current affairs programme in the country, TVNZ should schedule it at a time when it would be more convenient for more people to watch it.
Posted by homepaddock 
