Television in New Zealand
Television in New Zealand was introduced in 1960 as a state-run service. The broadcasting sector was deregulated in 1989, when the Government allowed competition to the state-owned Television New Zealand. There are three forms of broadcast television: a terrestrial service provided by Freeview; the first nationwide digital television service was launched in December 1998 by Sky, who had a monopoly on digital satellite television until the launch of Freeview's nationwide digital satellite service in May 2007. The Freeview digital terrestrial service launched on 14 April 2008. A pay digital terrestrial service was launched in 2012 by Igloo and closed in 2017. Broadband television operates from Vodafone. In July 2016, Sky announced that Igloo will be discontinued although Freeview channels will still be available; the Vodafone service includes all Sky Freeview channels. The digital changeover in New Zealand is now complete, it began on 30 September 2012, when Hawke's Bay and the West Coast switched off analogue television transmission.
The rest of the South Island switched off analogue television transmission on 28 April 2013, followed by the lower North Island on 29 September 2013. The upper North Island was the last region to cease analogue transmissions on 1 December 2013. Full-time television broadcasting was first introduced in New Zealand in 1960 and transmitted from the NZBC's existing 1YA radio broadcasting facility at 74 Shortland Street in Auckland, now home to the University of Auckland's Gus Fisher Gallery; the annual television licence fee was NZ£4. Prime Minister Walter Nash had made a surprise announcement in London in November 1959 that New Zealand would have television within twelve months; the first non-experimental programme was transmitted on Wednesday 1 June 1960. Programming was done on a regional basis, with different services broadcasting from the main cities, AKTV2 in Auckland, being the first on 1 June 1960, followed in 1961 by CHTV3 in Christchurch on 1 June and WNTV1 in Wellington on 1 July, DNTV2 in Dunedin on 31 July 1962.
Today, however and scheduling is done in Auckland where all the major networks are now headquartered. National won the 1960 election, the new Minister of Broadcasting, Arthur Kinsella in the new National government rewrote the Broadcasting Act of 1936, set up the state-owned New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation in 1962 to control public radio and television; the first broadcast relay stations were commissioned in 1963, extending television coverage to Hamilton and Palmerston North. Coverage was further expanded to Napier-Hastings and Invercargill in 1964, Timaru in 1965, Whangarei and New Plymouth in 1966. Advertising was introduced to Aucklanders on 4 April 1961, facilitated increasing transmission hours to twenty-eight per week. By 1962 there were 65,000 licences, by 1963 there were 80,000 licences and an estimated audience of 300,000 or one-eighth of the population, by 1966 there were half a million licences. By the 1970s every household had a set; the hours of transmission were from 5pm until close at about 10pm extending, in 1966, to 2pm opening.
A test pattern was transmitted from 9am to allow for adjustment of TV sets in homes by technicians. It was not until 1969; the NZBC had asked the Government for the approval of a second TV channel as early as 1964, but this was rejected as the Government considered increasing coverage of the existing TV service to be of greater priority. By 1971, two proposals for a second channel were under consideration: that of the NZBC for a non-commercial service. Although the Broadcasting Authority had favoured the Independent Television Corporation bid, the incoming Labour government favoured the NZBC's application and awarded it the licence without any formal hearings beforehand. On Wednesday 31 October 1973, colour television using the Phase Alternating Line system was introduced, in readiness for the 1974 British Commonwealth Games, which were to be held in Christchurch in January and February 1974; the final switchover for colour television was in December 1975. The introduction of a second TV channel on Monday 30 June 1975 saw the reorganisation of broadcasting in New Zealand.
The NZBC was dissolved in April of that year, with the two television channels, Television One and TV2, run separately from one another. TV2 was renamed South Pacific Television in 1976. In 1978, the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand was established, in 1980, TV One and South Pacific were merged into a single organisation, Television New Zealand. In 1988, following major economic reforms to the state sector, the BCNZ was dissolved. TVNZ and Radio New Zealand became separate "State-Owned Enterprises" which would have to compete co
New Zealand Parliament
The New Zealand Parliament is the legislature of New Zealand, consisting of the Queen of New Zealand and the New Zealand House of Representatives. The Queen is represented by a governor-general. Before 1951, there was the New Zealand Legislative Council; the Parliament was established in 1854 and is one of the oldest continuously functioning legislatures in the world. The House of Representatives has met in the Parliament Buildings located in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, since 1865, it consists of 120 members of Parliament, though sometimes more due to overhang seats. There are 71 MPs elected directly in electorate seats and the remainder are filled by list MPs based on each party's share of the total party vote. Māori were represented in Parliament from 1867, in 1893 women gained the vote. Although elections can be called early, each three years the House is dissolved and goes up for reelection; the Parliament is linked to the executive. The New Zealand Government comprises other ministers.
In accordance with the principle of responsible government, these individuals are always drawn from the House of Representatives, are held accountable to it. Neither the monarch nor her governor-general participates in the legislative process, save for signifying the Queen's approval to a bill passed by the House, known as the granting of Royal Assent, necessary for a bill to be enacted as law; the New Zealand Parliament is consciously modelled on the Westminster system of parliamentary representation, developed in the United Kingdom. This system can be traced back to the "Model Parliament" of 1295 regarded as the first recognisable parliament. Over the centuries, parliaments progressively limited the power of the monarchy; the Bill of Rights 1688 established Parliament's role in law-making and supply. Among its provisions, the Bill confirmed absolute freedom of speech in Parliament; as early as 1846, the British settlers in New Zealand petitioned for self-government. The New Zealand Parliament was created by the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852, an Act of the British Parliament, which established a bicameral legislature called the "General Assembly", but referred to as Parliament.
It had a lower house, called the House of Representatives, an upper house, called the Legislative Council. The members of the House were elected under the first-past-the-post voting system, while those of the Council were appointed by the Governor; the first members were sworn in on 24 May 1854 in Auckland. Legislative Councillors were appointed for life, but their terms were fixed at seven years; this change, coupled with responsible government and party politics, meant that by the 20th century, the government controlled the Council as well as the House, the passage of bills through the Council became a formality. In 1951, the Council was abolished altogether. At the time of its abolition the Council had fifty-four members, including its own Speaker. Under the Constitution Act, legislative power was conferred on New Zealand's provinces, each of which had its own elected provincial council; these provincial councils were able to legislate for their provinces on most subjects. However, New Zealand was never a federation comparable to Australia.
Over a twenty-year period, political power was progressively centralised, the provinces were abolished altogether in 1876. Unlike other countries, New Zealand had representatives of the indigenous population in its parliament from an early date. Reserved Māori seats were created in 1867 during the term of the 4th Parliament; the Māori electorates have lasted far longer than the intended five years. In 2002, the seats increased in number to seven. One historical speciality of the New Zealand Parliament was the country quota, which gave greater representation to rural politics. From 1889 on, districts were weighted according to their urban/rural split; those districts which had large rural proportions received a greater number of nominal votes than they contained voters – as an example, in 1927, Waipawa, a district without any urban population at all, received an additional 4,153 nominal votes to its actual 14,838 – having the maximum factor of 28% extra representation. The country quota was in effect until it was abolished in 1945 by a urban-elected Labour government, which switched to a one-vote-per-person system.
The New Zealand Parliament remained subordinate to the British Parliament, the supreme legislative authority for the entire British Empire—although, in practice, Britain's role was minimal from the 1890s. The New Zealand Parliament received progressively more control over New Zealand affairs through the passage of Imperial laws such as the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865, constitutional amendments, an hands-off approach by the British government. In 1947, the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act gave Parliament full power over New Zealand law, the New Zealand Constitution Amendment Act 1947, an Act of the British
New Zealand art
New Zealand art consists of the visual and plastic arts originating from New Zealand. It comes from different traditions: indigenous Māori art, that of the early European settlers, immigrants from Pacific and European countries. Owing to New Zealand's geographic isolation, in the past many artists had to leave home in order to make a living; the visual arts flourished in the latter decades of the 20th century as many New Zealanders became more culturally sophisticated. Charcoal drawings can be found on limestone rock shelters in the centre of the South Island, with over 500 sites stretching from Kaikoura to North Otago; the drawings are estimated to be between 500 and 800 years old, portray animals and fantastic creatures stylised reptiles. Some of the birds pictured are extinct, including Haast's eagles, they were drawn by early Māori, but by the time Europeans arrived, local inhabitants did not know the origins of the drawings. Māori visual art consists of four forms: carving, tattooing and painting.
It was rare for any of these to be purely decorative. The creation of art was governed by the rules of tapu. Styles varied from region to region: the style now sometimes seen as'typical' in fact originates from Te Arawa, who maintained a strong continuity in their artistic traditions thanks to early engagement with the tourist industry. Most traditional Māori art was stylised and featured motifs such as the spiral, the chevron and the koru; the colours black and red dominated. Carving was done in three media: wood and stone. Arguably ta moko was another form of carving. Wood carvings were used to decorate houses, containers and other objects; the most popular type of stone used in carving was pounamu, a form of jade, but other kinds were used in the North Island, where pounamu was not available. Both stone and bone were used to create jewellery such as the hei-tiki. Large scale stone face carvings were sometimes created; the introduction of metal tools by Europeans allowed more intricacy and delicacy, caused stone and bone fish hooks and other tools to become purely decorative.
Carving is traditionally a tapu activity performed by men only. Ta moko is the art of traditional Māori tattooing, done with a chisel. Men were tattooed on many parts of their bodies, including faces and thighs. Women were tattooed only on the lips and chin. Moko conveyed a person's ancestry; the art declined in the 19th century following the introduction of Christianity, but in recent decades has undergone a revival. Although modern moko are in traditional styles, most are carried out using modern equipment. Body parts such as the arms and back are popular locations for modern moko, although some are still on the face. Weaving was used to create numerous things, including wall panels in meeting houses and other important buildings, as well as clothing and bags. While many of these were purely functional, others were true works of art taking hundreds of hours to complete, given as gifts to important people. Cloaks in particular were the mark of an important chief. In pre-European times the main medium for weaving was flax, but following the arrival of Europeans cotton and other textiles were used in clothing.
The extinction and endangerment of many New Zealand birds has made the feather cloak a more difficult item to produce. Weaving was done by women. Although the oldest forms of Māori art are rock paintings, in'classical' Māori art, painting was not an important art form, it was used as a minor decoration in meeting houses, in stylised forms such as the koru. Europeans introduced Māori to their more figurative style of art, in the 19th century less stylised depictions of people and plants began to appear on the walls of meeting houses in place of traditional carvings and woven panels; the introduction of European paints allowed traditional painting to flourish, as brighter and more distinct colours could be produced. Europeans began producing art in New Zealand as soon as they arrived, with many exploration ships including an artist to record newly discovered places, people and fauna; the first European work of art made in New Zealand was a drawing by Isaac Gilsemans, the artist on Abel Tasman's expedition of 1642.
Sir Joseph Banks and Sydney Parkinson of Captain James Cook's ship Endeavour produced the first realistic depictions of Māori people, New Zealand landscapes, indigenous flora and fauna in 1769. William Hodges was the artist on HMS Resolution in 1773, John Webber on HMS Resolution in 1777, their works captured the imagination of Europeans and were an influence in the 19th century movement of art towards naturalism. Cook's artists' paintings and descriptions of moko sparked an interest in the subject in Europe, led to the tattoo becoming a tradition of the British Navy. Early 19th-century artists were for the most part visitors to New Zealand, not residents. Some, such as James Barry, who painted the Ngare Raumati chief Rua in 1818, Thomas Kendall with the chiefs Hongi Hika and Waikato in 1820, did not visit New Zealand at all, instead painting his subjects when they visited Britain. Landscape art was popular with early colonisers, prints were used to promote settlement in New Zealand. Notable landscape artists included Augustus Earle, who visited New Zealand in 1827-28, William Fox, who became Premier.
The first oil portraits of Māor
Cycling in New Zealand
Cycling in New Zealand, while popular as a sport, is a marginal commuting mode, with the share hovering around 1-3% in most major cities. This is due to a number of factors, principally safety fears; the bicycle reached New Zealand in the 1860s in the form of the velocipede known as the'boneshaker'. As bicycle design improved, production became mass-market, cycling became a popular mode of transport in many parts of New Zealand for half a century. In the 1950s and 60s government transport funding and policies favouring motor vehicles as the transport of the future, along with the increasing affordability of automobiles, spurred a rise in motor vehicles. New Zealand soon had, still has, one of the highest rates of car dependence in the world; as well as abandoning bicycles in favour of cars, the remaining bicyclists were forced off the streets by the rising danger of motor traffic, relegating bicycles to recreational and sports use. The oil shocks of the 1970s triggered the first of several bicycle resurgences, new sports bicycles became popular: first, road racing bikes BMXs and mountain bikes.
By 1990, a survey showed cycling to be the second most popular participation sport in New Zealand. Since cycle sales have remained high, averaging over 150,000 per annum. However, their everyday uses, such as for commuting or shopping, is still rare. In 1994, New Zealand introduced mandatory bicycle helmet wearing, a change which some parts of academia and cycling advocacy credit with further reducing the incidence and attractiveness of cycling. Since the 1990s, a number of local Councils have developed cycling strategies to plan for the provision of cycle-friendly environments and the promotion of cycling for transport and recreation; the Government, in its 2002 NZ Transport Strategy acknowledged the role that cycling can play in helping to achieve a number of strategic transport outcomes, in 2005 the first national Walking and Cycling Strategy "Getting There: On Foot, By Cycle" was released. However, from 2008 the new National-led Government set aside this strategy and restricted funding for cycling facilities, citing the need for motorway investment instead.
The one significant investment from 2010 was the "Model Walking and Cycling Communities" programme, which saw $7 million invested over 2 years in the two chosen communities and New Plymouth, as demonstration projects of what could be achieved with concentrated focus - a further $15 million was earmarked to these towns for 2012-15. Following a spate of cycle crashes in late 2010, a national coronial inquiry considered the issue of cycle safety. After hearing submissions from a wide range of parties, Coroner Matenga recommended in 2013 that an expert panel, led by the NZ Transport Agency, be put together to recommend to central and local government how to prevent further cycling deaths and improve safety. A Cycle Safety Panel of ten specialists was convened in 2014 and spent the year gathering evidence and making a wide-ranging series of recommendations. A key recommendation was that a significant injection in cycleway infrastructure funding was required by Government; as a result, a $100 million Urban Cycleways Fund was announced by the Government and, in conjunction with existing local and national transport funding, this led to a record $330 million cycleways programme over 2015-18.
Cycling is becoming a touristic and economic factor in the 2010s. In addition to successful cycle touring schemes credited with revitalising local back country areas, are experiences like those reported from Rotorua, where the mountain biking business within the Whakarewarewa timber plantation forest is several times that earned annually from the timber plantation itself. In the mid 2000s, Auckland Regional Transport Authority reported that “over half of Aucklanders believe it is unsafe, or always unsafe, to cycle”; this high perceived risk to bicycle users in New Zealand's largest city is due to a number of factors. Motorists tend to exhibit hostile attitudes towards bicycle riders. Bicycles are classed as'vehicles', a transport class obliged to use the road, forcing bicycle users to mingle with heavy and fast-moving motor vehicles. Bicycle infrastructure and the standards underpinning bicycle infrastructure planning are poor and bicycles receive very low levels of funding by both central and local government.
In recent decades a number of cycleways have been established through New Zealand, most of them rail trails. The Otago Central Rail Trail is a 150 kilometre walking, cycling or horse riding track in the South Island, it runs in an arc between Middlemarch and Clyde, along the route of the former Otago Central Railway. The Hawke's Bay Trails, which are in turn part of Nga Haerenga, the New Zealand Cycle Trail project, are made up of three distinct sections - the Landscapes Ride, the Water Ride and the Wineries Ride - and form a'Great Ride' of more than 200 kilometres; the Little River Rail Trail is a cycling and walking track established near Little River on Banks Peninsula in the Canterbury region of the South Island. The first section opened in May 2006; the route of the defunct Dun Mountain Railway is used for cycling. The Rimutaka Incline, replaced by the Rimutaka Tunnel in 1955, has now been established as a cycling route. Pipiwharauroa Way near Raglan. Christchurch, which has had one of the highest rates of cycling in the country, has over 200 km of cycle lanes and other cycling facilities, including the Railway Cycleway and Hagle
Flag of New Zealand
The flag of New Zealand known as the New Zealand Ensign, is a defaced Blue Ensign: a blue field with the Union Jack in the canton, four red stars with white borders to the right. The stars' pattern represents the asterism within the constellation of the Southern Cross. New Zealand's first flag, the flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand, was adopted in 1834, six years before New Zealand became a British colony following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. Chosen by an assembly of Māori chiefs at Waitangi in 1834, the flag was of a St George's Cross with another cross in the canton containing four stars on a blue field. After the formation of the colony in 1840, British ensigns began to be used; the current flag was designed and adopted for use on the colony's ships in 1869, was adopted as New Zealand's national flag, given statutory recognition in 1902. For several decades there has been debate about changing the flag. In 2016, a two-stage binding referendum on a flag change took place with voting on the second final stage closing on 24 March.
In this referendum, the country voted to keep the existing flag by 57% to 43%. Constituent parts of the flag of New Zealand The flag of New Zealand uses two prominent symbols: The Union Jack The Southern Cross In its original usage as the flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Union Jack combined three heraldic crosses which represent the countries of the United Kingdom: The red St George's Cross of England The white diagonal St Andrew's Cross of Scotland The red diagonal St Patrick's Cross of IrelandThe Union Jack reflects New Zealand's origins as a British colony; the Southern Cross constellation is one of the striking features of the Southern Hemisphere sky, has been used to represent New Zealand, among other Southern Hemisphere colonies, since the early days of European settlement. Additionally, in Māori mythology the Southern Cross is identified as Māhutonga, an aperture in Te Ikaroa through which storm winds escaped; the flag should be rectangular in shape and its length should be two times its width, translating into an aspect ratio of 1:2.
It has a royal blue background with a Union Jack in the canton, four five-pointed red stars with white borders on the fly. The exact colours are specified as Pantone 186C, Pantone 280C, white. According to the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, the government department responsible for the flag, the royal blue background is "reminiscent of the blue sea and sky surrounding us", the stars "signify place in the South Pacific Ocean"; the notice that appeared in the New Zealand Gazette on 27 June 1902 gave a technical description of the stars and their positions on the New Zealand Ensign: "The centres of the stars forming the long limb of the cross shall be on a vertical line on the fly, midway between the Union Jack and the outer edge of the fly, equidistant from its upper and lower edges. The centres of the stars forming the short limb of the cross shall be on a line intersecting the vertical limb at an angle of 82 therewith, rising from near the lower fly corner of the Union Jack towards the upper fly corner of the ensign, its point of intersection with the vertical line being distant from the centre of the uppermost star of the cross twelve-sixtieths of the hoist of the ensign.
The distance of the centre of the star nearest the outer edge of the fly from the point of intersection shall be equal to twelve-sixtieths of the hoist of the ensign, the distance of the centre of the star nearest the Union Jack from the point of intersection shall be equal to fourteen-sixtieths of the hoist of the ensign. The star nearest the fly edge of the ensign shall measure five-sixtieths, the star at the top of the cross and that nearest to the Union Jack shall each measure six-sixtieths, the star at the bottom of the cross shall measure seven-sixtieths of the hoist of the ensign across their respective red points, the width of the white borders to the several stars shall in all cases be equal to one one-hundred-and-twentieth of the hoist of the ensign." The Flags and Names Protection Act 1981 governs the usage of the national flag and all other official flags. This Act, like most other laws, can be changed by a simple majority in Parliament. Section 5 of the Act declares the flag to be "the symbol of the Realm and people of New Zealand".
Section 11 outlines two offences: altering the flag without lawful authority, using, damaging or destroying the flag in or within view of a public place with the intention of dishonouring it. The Minister for Arts and Heritage has authority to prescribe when and how the flag should be flown and what the standard sizes, dimensions and colours should be. In its advisory role, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage has issued guidelines to assist persons in their use of the flag. No permission is needed to fly the flag, it may be flown on every day of the year—government and public buildings with flagpoles are encouraged to fly the flag during working hours. However, it should never be flown in a dilapidated condition. Unlike some other countries there is no single official Flag Day in New Zealand, no pledge of allegiance to the flag. Flag flying may be encouraged on certain commemorative days, at the discretion of the Minister for Arts and Heritage; the flag can only be used as a vehicle flag by certain high-ranking officeholders, including: the Prime Minister and other ministers.
In such cases, n
Sport in New Zealand
Sport in New Zealand reflects its British colonial heritage, with some of the most popular sports being rugby union, rugby league, football and netball which are played in Commonwealth countries. New Zealand is a small nation but has enjoyed success in many sports, notably rugby union, rugby league, America's Cup sailing, world championship and Olympics events and motorsport and softball. Other popular sports include squash, hockey, cycling, a variety of water sports sailing and surf sports. Winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding are popular as are indoor and outdoor bowls. Skateboarding is enjoyed amongst a small portion of the youth. Sport New Zealand is the main government agency responsible for governing sport and recreation in New Zealand, it was established in 2003 by the Sport and Recreation New Zealand Act 2002, consolidating three agencies into one, was known as Sport and Recreation New Zealand until February 2012. Sport New Zealand is accountable to the government through the Minister of Recreation.
A subsidiary of Sport New Zealand, High Performance Sport New Zealand, is responsible for managing the country's high performance programme. The New Zealand Secondary School Sports Council runs an annual census of sport participation amongst secondary school students; the data only includes students that had a "meaningful engagement" in the sport, e.g. representing their school in a team. Rugby union is the national sport in New Zealand, is popular across all sections of New Zealand society, many New Zealanders associate it with their national identity, it has the largest spectator following of all sports in New Zealand. New Zealand's national rugby team, the All Blacks, has the best winning record of any national team in the world, is ranked first in the world; the All Blacks won the first Rugby World Cup in 1987, again on home soil in 2011. They won their third World Cup in 2015 in England, becoming the first holders to defend their title; the All Blacks traditionally perform a haka, a Māori challenge, at the start of international matches.
This practice has been mimicked by several other national teams, notably the national rugby league team, the basketball teams. Outside Test matches, there are three followed competitions: Super Rugby, the elite club competition in the southern hemisphere, it has involved teams from New Zealand and South Africa since its formation, in 2016 added teams in Argentina and Japan. It is played from summer right through until winter, with a 3-week break in June for international tests to take place. Mitre 10 Cup, created in 2006 as a successor to the National Provincial Championship, involves semi-professional provincial New Zealand teams and is played during the Winter and spring months, from August to November. Heartland Championship, an amateur competition of lower-level New Zealand provincial teams created in 2006 as a successor to the NPC and is played in the winter and spring months, from August to November. In the sevens variant of rugby union, the men's national team has been the main force in the sport since the creation of the World Rugby Sevens Series in 1999, winning the World Series 12 times in its 16 seasons.
They have won the Rugby World Cup Sevens thrice, in 2001, 2013 and the most recent edition in 2018, won the first four gold medals awarded in sevens at the Commonwealth Games. The country hosts one round of the World Series each season at Westpac Stadium in Wellington. In women's sevens, the national team is about as dominant as the men. Basketball has experienced a gigantic growth in popularity since 2013, being the 3rd most popular sport in terms of secondary school participation after netball and rugby union. New Zealand competes with their own team, the New Zealand Breakers. Outside of this league, they have created players that have gone on to play in the NBA, such as Steven Adams and Kirk Penney. New Zealand have not succeeded on the international stage. In 2002, the Tall Blacks came 4th place at the 2002 FIBA World Championship. In recent years, the national team has not done as well. Cricket is the national summer sport in New Zealand, one of twelve countries competing in Test match cricket.
The provincial competition is not nearly as followed as the case with rugby, but international matches are watched with interest by a large proportion of the population. This parallels the global situation in cricket, whereby the international game is more followed than the domestic game in all major cricketing countries; the national cricket team has not been as successful as the national rugby team. New Zealand had to wait until 1956 until its first Test victory; the national team began to have more success in the 1980s. New Zealand's most famous cricketer, the fast bowler Richard Hadlee, the first bowler to take 400 wickets in test cricket, played in this era. Although traditionally New Zealand have had one of the strongest sides, winning the 2000 edition of the ICC Champions Trophy and reac
Association of Community Access Broadcasters
The Association of Community Access Broadcasters known as the Access Radio Network, is a group of twelve New Zealand community radio stations. The stations were established between 1981 and 2010 and have received government funding since 1989 to broadcast community programming and provide facilities, training and on-air time for individuals and community groups to produce programming. In addition to government funding conditions, the stations have an individual and collective mandate to broadcast programmes for people of a wide range of particular religions, languages and sexualities. Stations operate independently and locally, with each station expected to make decisions on programming and scheduling by internal consensus. In total, they produce content in at least 40 different languages; the member stations serve Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa, Wellington, Canterbury and Southland. Some community stations have powerful frequencies, while others are low-power stations with a small local reach.
The stations of the Access Radio Network were established between 1981 and 2010: April 1981: Wellington Access Radio March 1986: Arrow FM Wairarapa 1987: Planet FM Auckland 28 February 1988: Plains FM Canterbury 1990: Otago Access Radio 1992: Free FM Hamilton 1994: Fresh FM Nelson 1995: Radio Kidnappers 1996: Coast Access Radio 1998: Access Manawatu 2010: Access Radio TaranakiThe association was set up in the early 1990s following a meeting between community station managers and New Zealand on Air officials in Wellington. It was the first opportunity many station managers had to meet each other and share the challenges each station had faced, including operating on limited resources, relying on volunteer support, serving diverse communities or operating from remote locations. In 1989, the Broadcasting Act set up the Broadcasting Commission - known publicly as New Zealand On Air - to fund New Zealand content for both mainstream and minority audiences. Funding of access radio has always been a part of that function, the ongoing funding of the Association member stations remains a core component of the Commission's Community Broadcasting Strategy.
A government funding pool of $2 million is now allocated annually for the eleven stations to produce programming for women, children and other minorities and people with disabilities in accordance with section 36 of the Broadcasting Act. Individual station funding is allocated on a four-tier system based on audience reach, with each station receiving between $110,000 and $220,000 in annual and publicly transparent funding rounds. Auckland's Planet FM is in the highest-funded Tier One. Radio Kidnappers in Hawke's Bay, Access Manawatu, Fresh FM in Nelson, Otago Access Radio and Radio Southland are Tier 3; the association has established itself as the national lobbying and resourcing organisation of community radio stations and aims to promote, develop and support the community access model. It is affiliated with and emulates the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia and the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters but has no domestic affiliations. Instead, it has become a self-support network, allowing the stations to share ideas.
Each year, the association holds an annual general meeting at a member station and appoints a chair and treasury with each station allocated a single vote every year. The association has remained non-profit and consensus-driven, with discussions taking place in face-to-face meetings and via email. However, while the association can introduce policies, it cannot dictate the content of individual community radio stations. Community stations have picked up several awards at the annual New Zealand Radio Awards since community radio stations were allowed into the event in 2002; the first awards went to Wellington Access for Terry Shaw's Songwriting Show and John E. Joyce's Basically Speaking and This is Jazz USA. Winners have included Viva Latinoamerica, Jazz Bros, Like Minds Like Mine, Six Degrees Music Show and Candela. Fresh FM music programme The World of Leopold Bloom - the work of Leopold Bloom and Matt Budd - has received more radio awards and finalist placings than other community radio show.
In 2014, a Leopold Bloom tribute special on Nelson Mandela and the music of South Africa won best community access programme, the South Africa New Zealand Association Mandela Memorial Programme on Planet FM won best spoken programme. Edward Swift won best new broadcaster in 2010 for his work on the morning show Plains FM and has since gone on to work for Newstalk ZB and Radio Sport. Plains FM has picked up awards for Sounds Catholic, A Belch on Sport, Japanese Downunder, Joanna Cobley's The Museum Detective, Tim's Talk and Janet Secker's Focus On Arts. A station staff member Naoko Kudo was recognised in 2008 by sister access station Fresh FM at their Fresh FM Vox Radio Audio Theatre Award for Aki's Adventures Downunder. Most Access Radio Network programmes are English-language. However, the metro stations broadcast many Chinese, Samoan and Tongan language programmes. Nationally, there are a handful of programmes in Assyrian, Chichewa, Indonesian, Khmer, Nepali, Filipino, Somali, Tamil and Vietnamese languages - on Planet FM.
Some Pacific community programmes are broadcast in Cook Islands Māori and Fijian. There are programmes for European migrants and language l
