ANZPM is hardly the snappiest name. Google thinks you are searching for Amazon and then gives the top result as the Australian and New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine.
Mr Jackson now has less than a year to get Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media, and its purpose, into people’s heads.
He is confident there will not be any confusion from the public over what the entity will actually do.
‘‘I’ve tried to be very clear in terms of what’s expected, in terms of a new view, a new public entity. I don’t know if I could have been much clearer,’’ he said.
The public media entity will be established next March and running from July.
At that point, TVNZ and RNZ will become subsidiaries of the entity — and then dissolved.
How ANZPM will actually run in practice will be left to its board, which will also be left to decide when TVNZ and RNZ will dissolve, but it has to do so by March 2028.
Setting up the entity has been left to an establishment board, which gives advice to the minister on the entity’s financial model, monitoring framework, legal issues and accountability arrangements, but does not have any decision-making powers.
‘‘We’ve got to go as far as we can go with the operating model, with what the monitoring will look like what the funding mechanism will look like, with as much detail as possible to hand that over to the actual establishment board and hope they run with it,’’ board chairwoman Tracey Martin said.
Ms Martin, a former New Zealand First minister, stressed it was not a merger. All current staff would keep their positions.
‘‘It’s not a merger, there is no intention of job losses. We actually want this entity to do more.’’
RNZ and TVNZ are Crown entity companies, monitored by the Treasury.
But ANZPM will be an autonomous Crown entity (Ace), monitored by the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage.
An Ace must typically give regard to government policy (for example, the New Zealand Film Commission, the Government Superannuation Fund Authority or Te Papa), rather than an independent Crown entity (Ice), which is independent of government policy (eg the Electoral Commission, Office of Film and Literature Classification or the Transport Accident Investigation Commission).
Editorial independence, impartiality and balance would be enshrined in the entity’s charter.
National’s broadcasting spokeswoman, Melissa Lee, was not convinced.
‘‘The whole merger itself looks like it’s an answer looking for a problem,’’ she said.
She was concerned about how much influence the government of the day might have over ANZPM if it remained an Ace.
‘‘I don’t think anybody should have control of news, really. The news entity should actually be independent of government or any politicians. Politicians shouldn’t tell you how to do the job.
‘‘But I think I can only talk about the perception, right? I think when people actually look at news and actually feel that it is one-sided, they accuse you of bias.’’
At the Bill’s first reading, Ms Lee’s colleague, Judith Collins, went even further.
‘‘They’re no longer seen as relevant, because they’re not seen as unbiased, because they are seen as being, basically, puppets to the Government,’’ Ms Collins said.
Ms Martin said because the entity would have partly commercial funding, it would not fit the Ice model.
The entity would also have a charter similar to RNZ’s, which would be reviewed every five years.
Ms Martin said the delivery of its charter was more important than making money, which was why it could not remain a Crown entity company.
‘‘It has to create commercial revenue, because we need money to spend on content and delivery and so on.
‘‘But that is not its driver. This is a public media entity, partially supported by commercial revenue.’’
She was also aware of challenges about how the public perceived media.
The establishment unit was looking at what other countries were doing to stop the decline in public trust and grow it again, ‘‘so that they [the public] can have confidence that when they go to whatever platform that this entity has, they know that it’s verifiable truth, it’s backed by integrity and there’s a tool that can prove it’’, Ms Martin said.
But the board would not be lifting a model from elsewhere and trying to make it fit in New Zealand.
There were many factors in New Zealand that would make it special — The Treaty of Waitangi, for starters.
Speaking personally, Ms Martin, a former minister for children, wanted the entity’s charter to deliver for New Zealand children.
‘‘I would like to think in five to 10 years’ time, when a parent goes to the doctor surgery and they want to entertain their child so that they’re not screaming or wiggling around or whatever, the app that they touch on on their phone or their iPad is the New Zealand children’s programming app.
"And they know that it’s safe, they know that it’s in a New Zealand voice, they know that it is educational or entertaining, and they don’t have to worry about the next video that might come along,’’ she said.
The Government put forward $327 million of Crown funding from the 2022 Budget to cover the entity’s first three years.
National leader Christopher Luxon had frequently used this figure as an example of the Government’s spending during a cost-of-living crisis.
But Ms Martin warned National, should it get into power in 2023, against axing the entity.
‘‘A future government, and you cannot tie the hands of any future government, could cut that funding.
‘‘I would suggest that because this is about truth and trust and editorial independence and, the public media delivering to the New Zealand public, that it would be a very foolish future government that would cut this funding.
‘‘They might not increase it, but it would be a very foolish government to cut it.’’
The legislation now goes to Parliament’s economic development, science and innovation committee and is open for public submissions.
Ms Lee said she was pushing for some changes.
‘‘I just think media, news entities, should be independent of government policy. So that’s one of the things that I would actually want to change.’’
Mr Jackson said he was open to discussions about the best model for the entity.
‘‘I absolutely want editorial independence and I think we’re going to work through some of those questions in the select committee process.
‘‘There’s a few gaps there, so I have no problem answering National’s questions. We don’t have all the answers now. I think we’ll get there because that’s not the first query we’ve had in that area,’’ he said.
Select committee chairman Jamie Strange said the committee would likely start hearing submissions from mid-September.
Final decisions on the new entity’s structure and operating model will be made by the new entity’s board and executive when it is formed next year.
