Melissa Lee, the media, and the secrecy of the cabinet paper

Thursday, 11 April 2024

Broadcasting Minister Melissa Lee is under pressure to give media leaders some certainty about what the government plans to do for the struggling sector.

Kelly Dennett is assistant editor of The Post.

OPINION: The first rule of lodging a paper with Cabinet is that you can’t talk about lodging a paper with Cabinet.

To the untrained Cabinet Manual eye the secrecy surrounding Cabinet papers feels nebulous, but it’s particularly so this week, given the fact Broadcasting Minister Melissa Lee has repeatedly gone on the record to confirm she was planning to take a paper to Cabinet, with the expectation that her proposals could support the beleaguered media sector.

But whether she’s done that, what work she has put in, when an outcome can be expected, or even just what her ideas are or where her thinking is at, are all shrouded in secrecy, giving the appearance of a minister hung out to dry.

Lee has been under increasing pressure since February when Warner Bros announced it was planning to shutter its entire news agency - a sure thing as of yesterday - which will see hundreds of Newshub jobs, including plenty of journalists around the country, axed.

It was also confirmed that TVNZ’s investigative journalism programme Sunday had been added to a pile of popular programmes that the state broadcaster is taking off air, including the beloved Fair Go.

Three broadcasters Samantha Hayes and Mike McRoberts embraced outside their Newshub offices this week, after Warner Bros confirmed its closure.

Between the two organisations more than 300 jobs will be lost and an entire news channel will evaporate, all adding to the increasing feeling of peril that has enveloped the industry owing to the bottom falling out from advertising. Latest trust stats out this week added to the mist.

Lee has gone on the record saying she planned to take a paper to Cabinet, with proposals for her media portfolio. So far, so good. Generally, a minister will consult with relevant organisations or individuals on issues facing their portfolio, as well as coalition partners or senior cabinet ministers, before preparing a paper to be, usually, first considered by a Cabinet committee, with any decisions then confirmed by Cabinet.

Papers can be taken straight to Cabinet if they are particularly urgent or sensitive, under exceptional circumstances.

Under the Cabinet Manual all Cabinet business is secret ‒ it’s forbidden to confirm proposals are being discussed. But anything pre Cabinet you should be able to expect a minister to talk about, at least in general terms ‒ and for a while Lee did that, with her confirmation about starting work.

6pm host Samantha Hayes says the focus will now be on celebrating what they have done and enjoying their remaining shows.

But media leaders wanting to know what the Government is even considering are in the dark. Lee, who yesterday was uncomfortable with any suggestion that she or her colleagues could “save” the industry, has been quick to point out the obvious ‒ that the issues are complex and not a quick solve.

It’s not as simple as injecting cash ‒ the Public Interest Journalism Fund was fraught with perception issues and seen as a bit of a hoop-jumping exercise within the industry. The slow-progressing Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill, which is going through the select committee process, is not thought to be something that could have rescued Newshub and similar legislation overseas has become a poisoned chalice. Transmission fee relief is not a silver bullet either, and certainly not for the equally lean-looking newspapers and websites.

So what then? If Lee has ideas, she’s not disclosing them ‒ not even daring to talk about what she’s looked at, who she’s talked to, or why she won’t discuss it. She wouldn’t discuss possible timelines, when she was planning to file a paper if she was yet to do so, what had happened after consultation, or even simply what action she had taken within her portfolio.

Lee hasn’t confirmed reports that proposals had been taken too early to a Cabinet committee, without consultation with NZ First leader Winston Peters or his party. Asked yesterday if a procedural error had held the paper up, she said there had been no error. She also didn’t respond to questions about whether the paper was being held up by disagreement amongst coalition partners.

In a long exchange with journalists at Parliament yesterday, Lee would only repeatedly say that she had been working very hard, but no, she would not be discussing the cabinet paper.

So we know a paper exists, but what has happened since is unclear, either because the rules forbid Lee from saying so, or because she just doesn’t want to say ‒ or feels like she can’t to avoid upsetting coalition partners. If the latter, the appearance of a lack of movement is doing a disservice to Lee. Senior ministers asked about it this week would only cite the Cabinet secrecy rule.

In the vacuum of silence, though, speculation builds.

While Lee may not be on the way to the save the day, speculation was mounting this week that a partnership between Newshub staff and other media could be afoot.

There have been plenty of successful new news ventures in recent times. That point was amplified, at least indirectly, by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon yesterday, who, when asked what his government was doing to support the media, would only say that media were yet to come to his government with proposals.

At least, in the face of a government whose responsible minister says she won’t be saving them, the NZ media has a firm track record of coming to its own rescue.