𝕎𝕚𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕠𝕟 ℙ𝕖𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕤 '𝕣𝕦𝕟𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕤𝕙𝕠𝕨' 𝕚𝕟 𝕟𝕖𝕨 𝕘𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕟𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥

ℕ𝕖𝕨 ℙ𝕣𝕚𝕞𝕖 𝕄𝕚𝕟𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕃𝕦𝕩𝕠𝕟 𝕟𝕖𝕖𝕕𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕡𝕦𝕝𝕝 𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕕𝕖𝕡𝕦𝕥𝕪 𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕠 𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕖 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕤𝕥𝕠𝕡 𝕔𝕙𝕠𝕠𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕔𝕠𝕨𝕒𝕣𝕕𝕤 𝕞𝕖𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕕 𝕠𝕗 𝕚𝕘𝕟𝕠𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕠𝕦𝕥𝕓𝕦𝕣𝕤𝕥𝕤 𝕒𝕘𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕤𝕥 𝕞𝕖𝕕𝕚𝕒

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abour Party leader Chris Hipkins says it was right for New Zealand On Air board member Andrew Shaw to stand down - but the new prime minister needs to pull his deputy into line.

Shaw resigned on Tuesday after posting comments to social media critical of Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters.

"He's not truthful. He's not accurate. He's malicious and he is here on behalf of international tobacco," Shaw wrote on LinkedIn. "His return is the worst of this gang of thugs."

Shaw was responding to comments from Peters on Monday, in which he accused state-owned media of a lack of independence from the previous government.

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He said TVNZ and RNZ were not truly independent, and could not "defend $55 million of bribery" - a reference to the Public Interest Journalism Fund (PJIF), a three-year $55m contestable fund for journalists initially set up to shore up public interest media during the Covid-19 pandemic, which was wound up in July. Political coverage was exempted from eligibility, and the fund was accessed by private media organisations too, not just TVNZ and RNZ.

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Peters made further comments at the new government's first Cabinet meetingon Tuesday afternoon, advising journalists they should "tell the public what you signed up to, to get the money. It's called transparency, okay?"

Luxon and Seymour should have stuck to their pre-election comments on never being able to work with Peters.

Hipkins told Morning Report while he had sympathy for Shaw's views, they were not appropriate in the context of his role on the board. NZ On Air administered the funding.

Pressure is mounting on the new Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to rein in his Deputy Winston Peters - less than one week into the job.

"As a member of the NZ On Air board, I think it's very important that Andrew Shaw upheld sort of the independence of NZ On Air, the political independence of New Zealand on air as an entity. So I think he's done the right thing in standing down."

But he said Peters' recent comments about media independence and journalism funding were outrageous, considering he was part of the coalition government that established the PJIF.

"In fact, he was the deputy prime minister in it. [The PJIF] was established during the period of, you know, Covid-19 instability and uncertainty to ensure that the media could continue to do a very, very important job, which was to scrutinise the actions of government - and at all levels, including local government - at a very extraordinary time for the country."

He said Peters' accusation of "bribery" was "totally baseless".

Opposition leader Chris Hipkins responds to Peters bribery claim

"The person who needs to do something about it is Christopher Luxon - this is his deputy Prime Minister making very serious allegations without any basis and without any facts to back them up.

"You know, ultimately Christopher Luxon is in charge, he is responsible for ensuring that ministers uphold the standards of being ministers. Winston Peters is not and I think Christopher Luxon should do something about that…

"He should certainly be pulling Winston Peters into line, although at this point, it seems like Winston Peters is running the show rather than Christopher."

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Hipkins said he had "absolutely no idea" what specifically Peters was referring to when he said journalists should "tell the public what you signed up to, to get the money".

"I've long since given up trying to second-guess what Winston Peters is saying."

He noted former Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson in an interview this week said it was NZ On Air that established the criteria for funding, not the government.

Hipkins, who was prime minister up until Monday, said he saw no evidence the fund "compromised" newsrooms' ability to scrutinise the government.

Luxon on Tuesday told Newshub he had not seen Peters' comments, despite the widespread news coverage.

Elsewhere in the interview with Morning Report, Hipkins called the government's decision to help fund its tax cuts by cutting smokefree efforts as "morally reprehensible", and said Labour's new shadow Cabinet would be announced later this week.

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