A raft of proposed legislation changes to the media and screen industry have been announced this morning – we read through it all all so you don’t have to. 

What’s all this then? 

This morning the Ministry for Culture and Heritage released its draft proposed changes to media and screen industry legislation in Aotearoa. “We now live in a time where audiences have unprecedented access to global media, making competition for viewers and advertising intense,” minister for media and communications Paul Goldsmith said in a statement. “However, much of the legislation underpinning our media landscape is outdated and stifling innovation.”

Wait, wait, who are you calling outdated and stifled?

It’s all good: many in the industry would agree that change is urgently needed to keep up with the rest of the world. As the Screen Production and Development Association (SPADA) president Irene Gardiner told The Spinoff last year, streaming giants like Netflix, which now reaches 38% of New Zealanders daily, have “completely broken the model” for how things used to get made. “They have taken an enormous amount of viewing eyeballs from free-to-air television, and they’ve done that with no real responsibility here.” 

That drop in eyeballs has meant a drop in advertising spend, which has meant a drop in budgets. TVNZ slashed its local content budget last year by $30m and Three by $20m, in what Gardiner called a “devastating” blow to local storytelling. Last year, SPADA lobbied for legislation to force Netflix, Disney, Amazon and Apple to pay a small percentage of their New Zealand revenue back to New Zealand screen funding agencies. 

“All we’re saying is: if you want to be a part of our screen ecosystem, then make a contribution here,” she said. Many countries have already put measures in place to regulate the streamers, including the content quotas and reinvestment schemes of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive in Europe, and the push for a similar legislative set-up in Australia. “So now, we’re not working on a level playing field,” Greenstone CEO Rachel Antony told The Spinoff.

“It’s like you’ve got one team playing in a stadium with a full kit and we’re standing on the edge of a cliff, barefoot.” 

Damn, we gotta get ourselves some shoes! So what are the proposed changes? 

OK, so there are five draft proposals that the MCH is now seeking feedback on. The first is about “ensuring accessibility of local media platforms”, AKA giving New Zealand stories top billing alongside whatever zany scenario Amy Schumer has found herself in this time. The proposal would require devices like smart TVs to pre-install local platforms and give them a prominent position, and also ensure easy access to local linear channels. 

The second draft proposal looks at increasing investment into local content from the streaming giants, some of which are now more popular with New Zealand audiences than linear television (Netflix reaches 38% of us, while TVNZ1 reaches 34%). It proposes that all streaming services in New Zealand would be required to invest a proportion of annual revenue into making or buying local content, and would also have to make it easy to find (right next to Schumer). 

Up next is a proposal to increase captioning and audio descriptions, or CAD. There are currently no legislative obligations around providing these services to those who need it and, outside of TVNZ, our channels and streamers have been found to have “low levels of accessibility”. The solution? Legislative obligations! Detailed requirements! Progressive targets based on technological capacity! Basically, forcing platforms to make their content accessible to all. 

The fourth proposed change is streamlining regulatory bodies like the Broadcasting Standards Authority (which deals with TV and radio) and the Media Council (which deals with print and online media). The proposal is for one regime to rule them all: broadcasters, streaming platforms, online media, newspapers, and magazines. It wouldn’t include platforms like Facebook or TikTok, so your Aunt Midge can still pop off about the lizard people for now. 

Last, but certainly not least, is the proposal to merge our two major screen funding bodies: the New Zealand Film Commission and NZ On Air. “NZ On Air and the Film Commission were originally set up with a mandate to provide funding for TV and radio, and film, respectively,” the proposal reads. “Shifts in technology, audience preferences, and market context have increasingly blurred the distinction between television and film production and consumption.” 

Consolidating the two would result in one entity that would distribute funding for the production of everything: screen/audiovisual (including games), audio, digital text-based content, as well as exciting and mysterious “future forms” that we haven’t thought of yet. The proposal states that merging the two “could improve efficiencies and support strategic funding outcomes” but also identifies a range of pros and cons – hence the need for feedback. 

So what does the industry reckon about the changes? 

Early responses suggest that people are broadly into it. “We are particularly pleased to see regulating the international streaming companies as one of the proposals,” said Gardiner from SPADA. “Any regulation in this area will help level the playing field.” That said, they will be seeking consensus from their members on other proposals before submitting feedback, such as the merging of NZ On Air and the New Zealand Film Commission. 

The Broadcasting Standards Authority also welcomed the discussion. “For many years we’ve pointed with increasing urgency to the need to update broadcasting regulations that were created in 1989 in a pre-internet world,” said BSA chief executive Stacey Wood. “We support the Media Reform paper’s stated aims to create a modern, fit-for-purpose regulatory and funding environment, and to support a sustainable media and content production sector.”

“We’ve advocated for a regulatory system that’s platform-agnostic, reflecting sea changes in technology and how content is produced and consumed, and we’re pleased this is reflected,” Wood said. “Measures to make New Zealand content more accessible and discoverable, and increase self-regulation, could help level the playing field so local media and content producers can compete with big international platforms, and Kiwi stories continue to be told.”

“We look forward to seeing how these proposals develop, with input from industry and audiences, and will lend our support where we can.”

How can we give feedback on the proposals? 

“I want to hear from the sector and the wider public about these proposals, and how we could improve or change them to support the best outcomes for both the sector and New Zealand audiences,” Goldsmith said in a statement. The consultation period is now open, with all submissions due by 11.59pm, Sunday, March 23. Submissions can be made through an online form here, emailed to mediaandscreen@mch.govt.nz or posted to Media and Screen Policy, Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage, PO Box 5364, Wellington 6140.

Alex Casey examines the perils of having your period at a music festival. 

It was right after Clairo’s swooning set that Sarah* knew it was time. She was on the second day of her period at Auckland’s Laneway festival, and braved the portaloos to empty her menstrual cup and change her pad. “I have a heavy flow so, if I’m out there for the long haul, I’ll always make sure I’m really prepared,” she said. But what she hadn’t anticipated was what awaited her behind the plastic door: “no bin, no running water – just hand sanitiser.” 

What happened next is the kind of situation you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy. Teetering precariously over the blue liquid of the toilet bowl, Sarah removed her menstrual cup and immediately got blood “fucking everywhere”. After cleaning up with the wafer-thin 1 ply toilet paper, and rinsing the “CSI crime scene” from her hands using her water bottle, there was one more insult to add to the psychological injury: nowhere to dispose of her used pad. 

“I just wrapped it in toilet paper and put it back in my bag,” she told The Spinoff. “I didn’t want anyone to see me with this big wad of toilet paper, so I just carried it around until I got home.”

Sarah’s story sits alongside countless others from festivals all around the country. Emma* had taken a tab of acid at Fisher when she needed to change her tampon, her disoriented feeling and funny tummy soon exacerbated by the labyrinthine loos. Again, there was no bin and no running water. “I just put the tampon in the toilet because there was no other option, and used the foot pump thing – you also can’t be too overzealous with that because it splashes easily.” 

An even more harrowing event experience came from Leah*, who once attended an all-day festival for motorcycle enthusiasts and was shocked to see the portaloos removed from the premises entirely, with three hours still left on the event schedule. “I don’t know why, I guess they thought all the men had done their shits for the day and would just be weeing outside,” she laughed. “It was predominantly men there, but there were plenty of women too.” 

Attending the event while in the midst of her period, Leah was forced into the “horror” of making do without a portaloo for the rest of the day. “I ended up in a quiet corner, just shoving enough toilet paper into my trousers so that any leaking would just be taken care of until I could get home,” she said. “In other situations, you make it work, but when there’s not even a dirty cubicle for you to stand in… I truly just don’t think the organisers even thought about it.” 

Beyond that particular extreme, Leah is used to taking menstrual matters into her own hands. “Sometimes I will carry a little zip lock bag that I cover with black masking tape so it’s not visible what’s inside, and then it can just be thrown out at the end of the day. It’s a little tramping trick I learned,” she said. “But when you’re at a festival you’ve paid lots of money for, you’d expect that these things would be taken care of, or that there’d at least be a bin or running water.” 

Dr Sally Roberts, head of microbiology, pathology and laboratory medicine for Te Whatu Ora in Auckland, said it is “misguided” that festivals are only providing hand sanitiser in the toilets. “Hand sanitiser is for if your hands are clean,” she explained. “When you’ve been to the toilet, your hands aren’t necessarily clean. Soap and water is what is required to remove what we call soiling – if you’ve got anything on your hands, you really need soap and water.” 

Her advice to festival-goers is to take something extra to clean their hands with – a wet wipe or a small amount of liquid soap and water – and to remember about door handles and railings too. “If you’re wise, when you get out and shut that toilet door, you’d do alcohol hand gel again at that point, because so many people haven’t washed their hands in that toilet, and then they’ve contaminated the door handle and all those surfaces that you’ve just touched.”

When it comes to disposal of period products, a representative from Flssh NZ, who provided the loos for Laneway, said there is “no issue” in throwing period products into their toilets as all waste is “methodically macerated, counted, and separated” responsibly after the event. Flssh has trialled sanitary bins in the past, but found that they are easily damaged or misused (needles) and require their own specific handling and disposal methods which have higher risk of contamination. 

“If sanitary products are pumped out from the toilet, and all waste and contents are contained in the waste tank – this is safer,” they said. “Sanitation bins work considerably well in lots of other environments, but in portable sanitation with the right operational input and correct maceration methods, it doesn’t make sense to put into practice.” They said the best solution in their opinion is to have a specific block set up with external hand basins for those on their periods.

Thankfully, some festivals have got the menstruation memo. Rhythm and Vines had free period products available in all main portaloo areas, as well as “very clean, very chic loos where you can change your period products in peace” and a “comfort zone” to rest and recover. “I’m ngl I stopped going to RNV for a bit there,” one commenter wrote under the announcement post. “I couldn’t stand the idea of going into a rank portaloo and having to change my pads.” 

Emma still had a lot of fun at Fisher, even though the portaloo period situation definitely dampened her overall experience. “I just don’t feel like the organisers did anything to make the experience better or more enjoyable for someone who was on their period,” she said. “Even just having accessible running water, or a small amount of free products. It’s such a small thing, but it does reduce stress massively – and surely that’s a big win for everyone.” 

*Names have been changed