The Broadcasting Minister is launching a charm offensive with TVNZ and RNZ as he pushes ahead with getting support for a new public media entity
Analysis: Willie Jackson was scheduled to meet with TVNZ staff on Friday morning and RNZ staff on Monday as the March 1 deadline draws closer for the two public media companies’ assets and staff merging into one entity.
However, Jackson cancelled both meetings just hours before he was due at TVNZ's office on Friday and no new dates have been set for either meeting. Newsroom understands his absence is due to a bereavement.
Jackson is expected to take a recommendation to the Appointments and Honours Cabinet Committee next week proposing former National Party leader Simon Bridges chair the board of the merged public media entity.
Newsroom understands TVNZ chief executive and former National Party cabinet minister, Simon Power, has thrown his support behind Bridges in an effort to safeguard the merger if there is a change of government.
READ MORE: * TVNZ/RNZ merger a 'chilling prospect' * More questions than answers for RNZ/TVNZ merger
In May, Bridges left Parliament and gave up his Tauranga seat to move to Auckland where he’s chief executive of the city’s business chamber.
Former New Zealand First Cabinet Minister and chair of the merger establishment board, Tracey Martin, is understood to be Jackson’s pick for deputy chair of the new board.
The recommendations would need to pass through cabinet committee before being referred to full Cabinet, but Newsroom understands Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who chairs both the committee and cabinet, doesn’t support a former politician heading the new entity.
Ardern wouldn’t be alone in that view either, with her deputy Grant Robertson and many other Cabinet ministers also expected to vote against such a move.
The legislation to merge the two public broadcasters is currently before select committee, which is due to report back in January.
In October, the bosses of the country’s media outlets submitted to MPs on the proposed merger – most were negative about the impact it would have on commercial businesses.
Stuff’s Sinead Boucher told MPs it would create a “media giant” that has a “very real potential to be a significantly market-distorting factor in the media eco-system”.
Given the March 1 deadline, Parliament would need to progress the second reading, whole of the committee stage and third reading in the two-week sitting block in February.
It will now be the new year before Jackson meets with TVNZ and RNZ staff, giving little time for feedback given the pace in which the legislation will need to pass.
It’s likely Parliament would be required to go into urgency, which would once again put a spotlight on controversial and complicated legislation being fast-tracked through the House where mistakes are more likely to happen.
Last week’s urgency resulted in Labour voting in favour of a Green Party amendment it didn’t intend to, which would create a new 60 percent entrenchment provision to protect Three Waters assets.
Labour is now going to have to throw the amendment back to the House so votes can be recast, and the ruling party can drop its support.
If the Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media Bill is passed, the board will then make decisions about how the new structure will operate, and the merger will be fully operational by July 1.
In the meantime, an appointments process is underway for the wider board and a chief executive to oversee the new entity.
There is a desire from some of Jackson's colleagues for people with a background or experience in journalism to be put forward for the job of chair of the new board.
Currently none of the people proposed by the Broadcasting Minister meet that criteria, Newsroom understands.
This article was first published at 5am but was updated at 9am to reflect the meetings being cancelled
