Dunne rolls over on public television

United Future’s first fishing expedition as a coalition partner has all the hallmarks of a Monty Python sketch, Labour’s Broadcasting spokesperson, Clare Curran says.

“Despite all his protestations about being public broadcasting’s saviour, all Peter Dunne has managed to do is get the National Government to agree to maintain current levels of funding for Radio New Zealand and TVNZ.

“Strangely he’s talking about it as if it is some sort of a game changer, yet he wasn’t able to secure a guarantee that TVNZ 7 would be retained.

“His heroic pre-election talk about saving New Zealand’s only real public television channel has come to nothing. Like one of Pavlov’s dogs, Peter Dunne took the bait – in this case an extra ‘associate ministership’ – and then just rolled over,” Clare Curran said.

“A flat budget means no growth. Peter Dunne thinks it could be a door opener to renegotiating TVNZ 7. What planet is the man on?

“He has gained nothing. In six months’ time New Zealand will lose its only free-to-air public television channel and in its place we’ll have dumbed-down, wall-to-wall shopping.

“We are one of only a few countries in the world without a true public television broadcaster. An online petition to save TVNZ 7, which Peter Dunne has promoted, has received more than 4500 responses. Alongside that there are concerns about the on-going funding of some of our top current affairs programmes.

“Keeping TVNZ 7 is a no-brainer. It’s a shame Peter Dunne has proved to be so toothless when it comes to biting the hand that feeds.

“A Labour-led government would have established the shape of a new, non-commercial, modern public broadcaster within a year.

“I would like to know why Peter Dunne, if he was so supportive of public broadcasting, didn’t exert more pressure on the incoming government,” Clare Curran said.