New Zealand's Media Landscape

New Zealand is not out of the woods yet. Noises are being made by politicians that NZ is back on track, no more unicorn kisses and rainbow hugs. But, it's not as simple as that as NZ no longer has an independent and fearless media.

Recently, TV3 shut down their news operation and now the whole platform has been sold to Sky NZ. Sky have said they have no real interest in news (I'm paraphrasing), so TV3's nightly news is produced by Stuff and that may be ending soon.

Stuff own most of the newspaper titles across NZ, significant amongst these are The Press of Christchurch, and The Post in Wellington.

Then, we have the New Zealand Herald, known as Aunty Herald due to its tone of being that Aunty that's always telling everyone off. It is the newspaper of record and now under a new board after a corporate coup. But it has been sliding for a while, so the jury is out on whether it will survive.

Newstalk ZB is a talk radio platform and dominates the airwaves. But it is just a rehash of the same claptrap you'd find in the newspapers.

TV1 is state owned and follows instructions from the government, it is a cockwomble media organisation.

There are one or two independent voices, the Otago Daily Times being one, but they're very tame.

The sum total paints an ugly picture. All of the above survive because the taxpayer keeps them alive. They do this through government agencies advertising across their platforms. Without this money, they'd all become extinct, overnight.

There have been some interesting developments; such as the online Centrist which gives readers a condensed version of news content. 

And then on YouTube there is The Platform, but it does very little reporting of its own, and its so-called stars are all locked in to prevailing opinions. They sound desperate to be liked and cling like limpet mines to those they perceive as the great and good. They are all products of a system that is dying, so they will also die, they have nothing new to offer.

In this desert, and with the internet now being heavily censored, the country has to try and survive. I am somewhat pessimistic about whether this is possible. 

Free School Meals - New Zealand

New Zealand's right wing politicians currently have an issue with free school meals. They're not supplied everywhere, but are made available in poorer areas where nutrition is a real issue.

In the embedded video, Richard Prebble is being interviewed by Leah Panapa. Prebble is a politician who was part for the Labour government of the 1980's that destroyed the modern post-war NZ economy, while Panapa should know better, but she doesn't as she's ignorant.

Prebble says, 'real facts'. Oh really, he's wrong, the facts are that NZ has always fed its vulnerable children. From the 1930's up until the late 1960's every primary school child in NZ had to drink half a pint of milk each school day. That's about 300ml every day Monday to Friday. Then, across the whole country up until, I think, the 1980's dairy products for human consumption were heavily subsidised. It was cheaper to buy milk and cheese than it was to drink a Coke or Sprite.

Additionally, every mother in New Zealand was paid a sum of money each week to feed their children. They got paid for every child, and this money went to mothers so that fathers didn't spend the money down at the pub. 

Then, finally, health camps operated across the country. Children found to be malnourished were taken to these camps and given food and exercise. These health camps operated for most of the twentieth century.

And just think what happens if NZ doesn't feed its vulnerable children. The cost of this is enormous, the country would end up with a segment of uneducated and sickly people. The cheapest way to deal with it is to feed the children at school and put these children in a position where they can learn. A hungry child doesn't learn, it's as simple as that.