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ARTS, CULTURE & HERITAGE POLICY 2005

United Future will:

• Promote an environment where the cultural identities of a diverse people are recognised and actively promoted.

• Recognise the special place of Maori culture in New Zealand society.

• Review the funding of Creative New Zealand with a view to increasing accountability, and require 'simple English' explanations of all public monies allocated for cultural purposes.

• Require Creative NZ to "bring art to the people" through increased community involvement.

• Strengthen community participation at all levels in the Historic Places Trust and provide adequate resourcing for its work.

• Encourage government and community involvement in the preservation of historic places.

• Address the funding formula of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra to reduce the need for additional funding injections, and balance with funding of regional orchestras.

• Support the work of the New Zealand Film Commission.

• Encourage all television and radio channels to raise the profile of local content in programming and productions through NZ On Air.

• Acknowledge the contribution of artistic and cultural activities to the economy.

Broadcasting Policy

• United Future is committed to a broadcasting system that is inclusive, responsive and broad-based for all New Zealanders. Broadcasting is a comprehensive medium for promoting democracy and an essential social and cultural tool to transmit New Zealand's cultural and national identity.
  United Future will:

• Review the operation of the TVNZ Charter, with a particular focus on improving accountability and transparency of the use of taxpayer funding.

• Support NZ On Air as a mechanism for encouraging local content on television and radio, since it is available to all networks and it encourages creativity and diversity by allowing independent producers to flourish.

• Reform the Broadcasting Standards Authority to enable it to fulfil its ombudsman role, including streamlining procedures and providing extra resources to ensure complaints are dealt with expeditiously, broadening its scope so that it can be proactive in raising issues, and empowering the BSA to defend its rulings from network challenges.

• Push back the time at which Adults Only programming may appear on television from 8:30pm to 9:30pm.

• Seek improvements in television reception across the country.

• Reduce the compliance costs of regulations for bands on airwaves for regional broadcasters, to allow new players to enter the market and ensure that local voices have access to the airwaves.

• Maintain Radio New Zealand in public ownership, notwithstanding changes to its structure or operation.

• Support Radio New Zealand's transmission to the greater Pacific region.

• Ensure that the sound archives housed at Radio New Zealand are protected and digitally recorded.

• Ensure the Broadcasting Act recognises the importance of Community Access Radio

Communications Policy

• A modern digital infrastructure is vital if New Zealand is to prosper in the 21st century. Increasingly digital technology is reducing the barrier of distance. New Zealand families and businesses can now enjoy the benefits of global communications. United Future believes we need new solutions to the challenges presented by new technologies.
  United Future will:

• Ensure that New Zealand has an open competitive modern telecommunications infrastructure, to promote the delivery of better service at better prices, backed by a sound regulatory framework to protect the public interest.

• Support Project PROBE as a way of ensuring that rural schools and communities have access to high-speed Internet services.

• Strike a regulatory balance between promoting competition through providing access for competitors to network assets, and maintaining the incentives for operators to invest in new networks.

• Ensure that telephone customers who change providers are able to take their phone number with them.

• Take all necessary steps to safeguard children from harmful internet material, working with the Internet Safety Group and the industry to ensure that filtering software and other appropriate safety measures, including effective Codes of Practice, are adopted.

• Support the work of Internet NZ and the Telecommunications Carriers Forum in developing Codes of Practice to combat spam.

• Unbundle the local loop, to break the monopoly over the local copper wire network.