willie jackson

Willie Jackson maintains he's not deliberately disseminating disinformation - but says everyone's having an election year biffo.

During a debate last night, Senior Labour Minister Jackson incorrectly maintained ACT and National planned to abolish the minimum wage.

Jackson later clarified he was being facetious.

He said he was in the heat of the moment, though he also agrees Kiwis should be aware of what politicians are saying.

Jackson explained that we're in a campaign - and everyone is having a bit of a scrap.

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Willie Jackson maintains he's not deliberately disseminating disinformation - but says everyone's having an election year biffo.

During a debate last night, Senior Labour Minister Jackson incorrectly maintained ACT and National planned to abolish the minimum wage.

Jackson later clarified he was being facetious.

He said he was in the heat of the moment, though he also agrees Kiwis should be aware of what politicians are saying.

Jackson explained that we're in a campaign - and everyone is having a bit of a scrap.

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ACT Leader David Seymour's taken issue with comments made by Maori Development Minister Willie Jackson, calling them divisive and ineffective.

In his final speech of the parliamentary term yesterday, Jackson said Maori have a different set of rights because they're recognised as the indigenous people of the country. 

Seymour told Heather du Plessis-Allan that it's the first time he's heard a Labour MP explicitly say the Treaty of Waitangi means some people have different rights than others.

He claims that's not true and not supported by the Treaty, which he argues says we all have the same rights and duties.

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TVNZ's CEO Simon Power is stepping down after 15 months in the role.

He will leave the company on June 30th, and says it's "been a privilege" to lead the company while it worked through the now-scrapped TVNZ/RNZ merger.

BusinessDesk managing editor Pattrick Smellie suspects it wasn't the dumped merger that pushed Simon Power to quit.

Pattrick Smellie says several TVNZ board members have just been reappointed beyond March 31 and Willie Jackson may want to try implement aspects of the merger, leading to Simon Power's resignation.

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TVNZ's CEO Simon Power is stepping down after 15 months in the role.

He will leave the company on June 30th, and says it's "been a privilege" to lead the company while it worked through the now-scrapped TVNZ/RNZ merger.

BusinessDesk managing editor Pattrick Smellie suspects it wasn't the dumped merger that pushed Simon Power to quit.

Pattrick Smellie says several TVNZ board members have just been reappointed beyond March 31 and Willie Jackson may want to try implement aspects of the merger, leading to Simon Power's resignation.

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Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson has walked back his support of the TVNZ/RNZ merger.

During an earlier session in Parliament, Jackson declared the merger was over and it wouldn't be brought back in the future.

This comes six days after Willie Jackson defended the $16.1 million costs of the scrapped merger and hoped it could be resurrected.

ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says Labour knew the merger would be cancelled months prior and the taxpayers were funding empty office space.

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Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson has stepped up to defend spending $16.1 million on a now-scrapped media merger.

National MP Melissa Lee claimed the whole exercise was a waste of money.

Jackson said the TVNZ/RNZ merger would future-proof NZ media, and hopes it will go ahead one day when the nation isn't addressing Cyclone Gabrielle and extreme floods.

ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says Willie Jackson's comments are inaccurate, as the merger was scrapped well before Cyclone Gabrielle.

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The National Party has come out swinging over the ongoing spending of the scrapped TVNZ/RNZ merger.

Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson says board members have since met for about a day and a half, costing $10,300 dollars.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has defended it, saying he made clear there would be wind-down costs.

But the National Party's Broadcasting spokesperson, Melissa Lee says there's no need for further meetings to do a wrap-up report.

"The contract should have ended on the day that they cancelled the project. It was established as a board for the Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media and there's nothing to establish, so why do they need to be paid for the work?"

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Chief Political Reporter Aaron Dahmen joins Nick Mills just moments before the Three Waters Reforms Bill passes into law. 

He also discusses the possible existence of an offshore Chinese police centre here in New Zealand, and Willie Jackson's diabolical interview on Q + A. 

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Today on The Huddle, Tim Wilson from Maxim Institute and Jack Tame from ZB's Saturday Mornings and Q&A joined in a discussion about the following issues of the day:

Yesterday's Kantar poll shows that National is overtaking Labour with a five point lead and Jacinda Ardern's approval rating has dropped down to 29 percent. Can this Government bounce back, or are we looking at a National-Act Government next election?

Sport NZ has put out some new guiding principles that state transgender athletes can participate in community sports that match the gender identity they identify as without needing to 'prove themselves'. What do we think of this?   

Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson has released an apology following his comments about the TVNZ-RNZ merger in his infamous interview with Jack Tame on Q&A last Sunday. Does it sound genuine enough?

How excited are we for the Meghan and Harry Netflix documentary? 

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The Act Party Leader's calling for a halt of the RNZ-TVNZ merger.

The Government's plan to merge the two organisations is inching closer, as the select committee process is finished, with a report due back in January.

The new entity is expected to receive 109 million dollars a year.

Act's David Seymour says the project will be slashed if a National-Act government is elected next year.

He says he can't think of a worse minister to be in charge of media than Willie Jackson. 

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Maori Development Minister Willie Jackson has recently been saying that he wants to put co-governance on hold for 2023.

The Government has been working on plenty of co-governance based projects and policies over the last few months, including the establishment of Maori wards in local councils, the Canterbury regional council reforms and the Three Waters discussion.

Recently, Willie Jackson has been leaning towards Government putting co-governance on the back burner for 2023, and stated he wasn't comfortable with some new proposals put forward.

Political editor Barry Soper says that it makes sense for Labour to be backtracking on some of these proposals, given that 2023 will be a crucial electionyear for the party.

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Māori Development Minister Willie Jackson joined Heather du Plessis Allan Drive to discuss the one person one vote outrage flowing on from the government's decision to allow to unelected Ngāi Tahu members on ECAN.

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