Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson has denied that the $16.1 million spent on the scrapped TVNZ-RNZ merger is a waste of money – and still hopes it will go ahead one day.
Jackson was being grilled on the merger in select committee today for the first time since it was scrapped in PM Chris Hipkins’ policies bonfire on February 8.
He rejected National MP Melissa Lee’s claim that the $16.1 million exercise was a total waste of money.
“We are talking about future-proofing NZ media and while we don’t have a merger we know where we are going. And in a better time, when we don’t have a cyclone and we don’t have the floods of the century, we might be able to roll that merger out.
”We know a heck of a lot more now. We’ve got a framework, a fully formed business case, which evaluates the multiple options. We’re much more informed in terms of what New Zealanders want.
“I think it’s been money well spent. We are talking about an industry that had been collapsing on us. There was a huge acknowledgement across the sector that we have to do something. That challenge is still in front of me and I’m trying to get a cohesive strategy.”
This policy was axed because Labour thought it would lose them the election. But Willie Jackson and his yapping mouth have let the cat out of the bag: Labour intend to pursue this if they get re-elected.
The policy is not axed; it is merely parked until they can get another term.
But the claim that merging two legacy media entities into a grand Kiwi version of Pravda is somehow “future-proofing” NZ media is as ridiculous as it is specious.
Both TVNZ and RadioNZ are moribund old media organisations that have failed to grasp the future, and merging them will just entrench those legacy media and eventually require massive subsidies to keep them afloat.
A sensible government would sell them and put in place legislation allowing the government to have access to the stations in times of emergencies, similar to US legislation.
But at least we know what Labour is really planning, thanks to the gaping maw that is Willie Jackson’s mouth.
Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. This article was first published HERE.
3 comments:
The problem with RNZ is that they have attempted to grasp the future which wily Willie imagines; one dumbed down and aimed largely at maori and with a huge maori content in an effort to take the national culture back to that of the stone age. Hopefully with the merger scrubbed we will get a new chair and Board not wedded to the currnt maorification of everything.
Yes, sell them - to Rupert Murdoch!
Thank god for flabby jaw Willie….
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