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Labour calls RNZ's budget cuts a "giant step back"

Politics

Aleksandra Bogdanova
Reuben Davidson finishing 18 years at Whitebaitmedia
Reuben Davidson finishing 18 years at Whitebaitmedia  Reuben Davidson / Facebook

Labour’s shadow Media and Communications Spokesperson Reuben Davidson has gone on the attack over cuts to RNZ funding in the recent Budget.

Its funding has been reduced by a total of $18 million over four years, which Davidson says in general “for the media, it was a pretty bad budget.” 

Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith says $6.4 million of that reduced funding is now being redirected into regional newsrooms. 

Goldsmith argues it will bring more diverse coverage to Aotearoa, but Davidson claims to be “giant step back” that could prevent RNZ’s important reach to the country.

Aleksandra Bogdanova / NZBS

Davidson says that while money being put into local democracy reporting is an overall positive thing, he’s disappointed that all the money carved off RNZ isn’t being put back into media.  

“When you’re carving off $12 million here and spending $4/5 million there, you are still making a cut, and a significant cut to the media sector.” 

Goldsmith previously told Metronews that the $3 million of $4.6 million being removed from RNZ yearly is going into the government’s savings, while the rest is being invested into NZ on Air.

RNZ is still yet to announce their plans going forward in regard to their budgetary changes.  

Paul Goldsmith on visit to the New Zealand Broadcasting School
Paul Goldsmith on visit to the New Zealand Broadcasting School Andy Johnson / NZBS

Additionally, Davidson expressed disappointment that restrictions to bigger tech companies such as Google and Meta were not addressed in relation to the Budget. 

“The big tech platforms who take our local content and provide it online and pay nothing for that, received a $500 million cut in taxes that they should be paying for.” 

This concern follows the scrapping of a proposed Digital Service Tax, which gave tax breaks to tech companies, a decision that left some worries to be an advertising threat to Kiwi media industries. 

Goldsmith has previously emphasised to Metronews that this topic is a challenging area for the government to tackle.

“We’re being cautious in the way that we are stepping forward ... We’re particularly watching what the Australians are doing.” 

But Davidson doesn’t agree with this methodology.  

“The wait and see approach doesn’t work when you have a crisis on your hands ... There’s a lot that could and should be being done.”