Try as Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman might to dance around the issue, imposing a funding freeze on Radio NZ is a cut in real terms. It's a cut in the same way that if you work the same job for five years and don't get a pay rise in that time, you're much worse off. Inflation has eaten away at the value of your wage.
It's interesting how little money the Government is prepared to make available to Radio NZ, when it is happy to throw money at Team New Zealand, the Rugby World Cup and other pet projects.
John Key probably isn't a National Radio kind of guy - I'd pick he's probably more of a Radio Hauraki listener. But commercial radio is largely a brain-free zone, which is why we need Radio NZ. As patchy as the content of Radio NZ National can sometimes be, its coverage of news and current affairs is probably the best of any media organisation in this country. Morning Report and Checkpoint are always top notch.
So what's behind this? Simple ignorance? Does Steven Joyce (a commercial radio man) now see a chance to kill off his nemesis? Or is it something even more sinister? Perhaps having a broadcaster that is not afraid to ask hard questions on serious issues (rather than getting excited over what uranium shares John Key owns), doesn't suit this government.
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