Rt Hon Winston Peters

New Zealand First Leader

Member of Parliament for Northland
10 AUGUST 2017

Ditch Hosking Now

Opinionated, Right-leaning Mike Hosking will host TVNZ’s political debates – he’s a wholly unsuitable choice.

“The state-owned broadcaster has to come clean on who they considered, or did they just call their favourite son and wave a dollar package at him,” says New Zealand First Leader and Northland MP Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“It would be fair to say many New Zealanders are tired of his brand of broadcasting. This goes to the nub of the matter. At election time there is a standard of fairness and balance to be set by broadcasters – the choice of Mr Hosking breaks all those.

“At the same time, TVNZ has undemocratically decided to hold two leaders’ debate with the two old parties - Labour and National. TVNZ is relegating all other parties in Parliament to another debate.

“TVNZ has decided on the main two debates with two parties, neither of which will have enough votes to govern alone. Are the TVNZ executives making these decisions without any knowledge of the political landscape in this country?

“For their education, we are now in an MMP environment and have been for over 20 years. It is no longer first past the post.

“New Zealand First wants changes and fast, starting with the ditching of Mr Hosking,” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

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