[Sitting date: 03 December 2014. Volume:702;Page:9. Text is subject to correction.]

11. MOJO MATHERS (Green) to the Minister of Broadcasting : Will she consider using regulation to increase New Zealand’s level of captioning for free-to-air television, given that all of Europe has regulations in place for captioning; if not, why not?

Hon AMY ADAMS (Minister of Broadcasting): Not at this time because I am satisfied that there has been a significant increase in New Zealand’s level of free-to-air TV captioning over the past decade, including 100 percent of prime-time content on Television One and TV2 now being captioned.

Mojo Mathers : Is she aware that New Zealand has ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which affirms the right to access information and popular culture; if so, will she commit to captioning all free-to-air television?

Hon AMY ADAMS : In answer to the first part of the question, yes.

Mojo Mathers : Does she consider that without regulation, New Zealand will not be able to receive the high levels of captioning comparable with Australia, the UK, and the US, given that high rates of captioning have been achieved only in countries that have rules requiring broadcasters to provide captioning?

Hon AMY ADAMS : Well, what I do consider is that without regulation over the past decade, New Zealand has moved from having around only 70 hours a week of captioning and absolutely no provision of audio description to now having more than 250 hours a week of free-to-air captioning, plus having 17 Sky channels carrying some captioning and around 20 hours of audio description per week. All of that has been achieved without regulation. The trend is for that to continue to increase, and we support that.

Mojo Mathers : Does she consider it acceptable that New Zealand On Air - funded programmes can be either shown without captions or released as DVDs without captions, and will she consider bringing in a requirement for all New Zealand On Air - funded programmes to be available in captions and audio description; if not, why not?

Hon AMY ADAMS : That is something I am considering.

ENDS

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