Alliance Party says Actors Equity convenient whipping boys in Hobbit decision

The Alliance Party says that Actors Equity is not to blame for the ghastly climb downs the National Government has made to keep The Hobbit in New Zealand.

“It is becoming obvious that the real reason Warner Brothers originally wanted to move the filming of The Hobbit away from New Zealand was simply to screw more concessions out of a government that they knew would be fully responsive to their demands for more cash and repressive labour laws. The actions of the Australasian Media and Entertainment Alliance (AMEA) and Actors Equity were simply used as a deliberate smokescreen to hide Warner Brother’s real intentions,” says Alliance Co-Leader Kay Murray.

The Alliance believes that given the poor pay and conditions that actors often encounter, Actors Equity had every right to request a meeting to discuss basic working conditions on the production. This did not warrant the heavy handed ultimatum from Warners, or near panic from the National Government.

“The Government was purportedly concerned about the potential loss of Warner’s $500 million investment into the local economy. That is nonsense when they actually care little about efforts, for example, to bring the Auckland railway carriage building project to Dunedin. This railway carriage building project could still be done offshore too.”

Ms Murray says the Alliance Party is supportive of The Hobbit being filmed in New Zealand and do have enormous respect for Sir Peter Jackson as a director and a man. However, the party still does not want this filming to occur at any cost, especially when the increase in the large screen production rebate will take money away from crucial areas such as health and education.

"We are also especially concerned about the changes to employment law to circumvent film workers rights which will be introduced to Parliament today. As a party we believe that changes to employment law must be carefully thought out and fully consulted on. Changes to employment law should not be knee jerk reactions to satisfy the demands of big multinational corporations who have held us to ransom and succeeded on this occasion."

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