Murray McCully National Member of Parliament

12 June 2001

TVNZ jobs may be axed due to Charter

News today that a cash-strapped TVNZ is considering significant cost-cutting measures clearly demonstrates the 'utter lunacy' of the Government's ideologically driven Charter, National's Murray McCully said today.

"TVNZ Chief Executive Rick Ellis today admitted that TVNZ was now cashflow negative - an outcome I have been predicting for months. He told staff that an internal review of TVNZ will be conducted to reduce costs. When asked if jobs would go, Mr Ellis could give no guarantees," Mr McCully said.

"What used to be a monumentally successful taxpayer owned asset, worth 1.7 billion dollars, is quickly turning into a disaster area.

"Rick Ellis has blamed soft advertising revenue and high costs for imported programmes caused by the low kiwi dollar. But even a blind person can see that TVNZ's anticipation of the Charter - by dropping infomercials (at a cost of around $2 million a year) and playing more politically correct programmes which have undermined advertiser confidence - has played a big role," Murray McCully said.

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