McCully Murray: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations  and State Enterprises — In Committee 
McCully Murray: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations  and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Volume:631;Page:3048] 
Hon MURRAY McCULLY (National—East Coast Bays) 
: 
 I want to take the opportunity today to speak to the House about the unusual circumstances in which Television New Zealand Ltd (TVNZ) had its annual review completed by the Finance and Expenditure Committee this year and about the unfinished business that lies before that committee having completed the annual review. 
It is widely understood that in the past 12 months TVNZ has been beset by major eruptions. We have seen scandal after scandal culminating in the departure of the company’s chief executive Mr Ian Fraser who made assertions of political interference in the work of the management of that company. That led the Finance and Expenditure Committee to take a most unusual course in relation to the financial review. The select committee decided there should be a conventional financial review by the committee but parallel with that review and subsequent to it a formal inquiry should take place to enable members of Parliament to ask the questions in order to give the public the answers they were due about what had happened in their State broadcaster. 
 It is now a matter of history that as a consequence of the two hearings before the Finance and Expenditure Committee TVNZ ended up before the Privileges Committee of this Parliament. That was the subject of an earlier debate in this House. Suffice it to say that on this occasion TVNZ was handed a very stiff warning by the Privileges Committee and was required to apologise to the House. The director was fined $1000 which was the first time in 103 years that we have seen a fine levied by the Privileges Committee. The committee especially noted the very poor culture that exists in that company. 
I say to the Committee today that this is unfinished business lying before the House and the Finance and Expenditure Committee as we move into the next few weeks. What the Finance and Expenditure Committee and the Privileges Committee did not know when they conducted their reviews was that inside TVNZ were some private emails from Mr Fraser to Mr Boyce which told us two things. First they told us that the then chairman of TVNZ Mr Boyce thought the members of the Finance and Expenditure Committee of this Parliament were “bastards” who were the enemy of TVNZ. We could not possibly underline more graphically the contempt and disdain that senior people in TVNZ have for the select committee process and for the whole process of accountability to this House and to the owners of TVNZ than is evident in that email. 
Second we also know from those emails that Mr Boyce was part of a process of avoiding revelations about what he called the “mid-year stuff” between “yourself and Ann”—Mr Fraser and Dame Ann Hercus—because revealing the truth about that would “be a disaster for everyone”. So in this email we have a chairman of TVNZ telling the departing chief executive that it is his firm intention to go along to a select committee of this Parliament and lie like a flatfish. If the “mid-year stuff” between Mr Fraser and Dame Ann Hercus were to come up Mr Boyce intended to lie. He then proceeded in this email to traverse the lie that he intended to tell the Finance and Expenditure Committee. 
How very very unfortunate for Mr Boyce that those emails should see the light of day. How even more unfortunate for Mr Boyce that the inquiry is still alive before the Finance and Expenditure Committee. I say to Mr Jones the chairman of that committee and to my colleagues who serve on that committee that this is a test for them. This is a test for the Finance and Expenditure Committee that conducts the review of TVNZ. Are they prepared to accept being told by the chairman of TVNZ that they are bastards who are the enemy of the company? And are they prepared to now find out that the chairman intended to and duly did lie to that committee?