Curran 'not trying to push' RNZ

Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran insists she was not trying to push Radio New Zealand in any editorial direction during her meeting with Carol Hirschfeld, whose resignation yesterday followed months of denying the meeting was prearranged.

Clare Curran.
Clare Curran.
Ms Hirschfeld repeatedly told RNZ management over a four-month period the meeting was a chance encounter, despite it being recorded in the minister's diary for five days before the meeting, and two attempts by the minister to tell RNZ Ms Hirschfeld was wrong.

The episode unravelled yesterday with Ms Hirschfeld's resignation as head of RNZ content, Ms Curran's admission of wrongdoing, and Opposition leader Simon Bridges questioning Ms Curran's integrity.

''It's hard for New Zealanders, frankly, to believe a word she says,'' Mr Bridges said of the Dunedin South MP.

Carol Hirschfeld
Carol Hirschfeld

The issue became political after Ms Curran said the meeting was ''unofficial'' and excluded it from a list of meetings she provided in response to a parliamentary question.

Yesterday, she said she made a mistake and should have included it from the beginning.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stood by Ms Curran, saying the minister had corrected the record - although it had taken two and a-half months and she should have done it sooner.

Ms Curran remains in the spotlight for what was said in the meeting and whether it could be seen as an attempt to influence the editorial direction of the state broadcaster, which is set to receive $38million in government funding to set up RNZ Plus.

Ms Curran called it a ''high-level discussion'' about the state of the media and RNZ's future, but a spokeswoman late last night insisted ''the minister was not trying to push RNZ in any direction''.

Ms Ardern also said Ms  Curran had assured her there was nothing inappropriate in her discussion with Ms Hirschfeld.

Ms Curran also defended her decision not to set the record straight publicly after she found out on March 1 - following a select committee meeting with RNZ management - that Ms Hirschfeld was calling it a chance encounter.

She said her office contacted RNZ immediately to correct Ms Hirschfeld.

''It then became a matter for RNZ to deal with.''

RNZ management questioned Ms Hirschfeld about the matter again. She reassured them it was a chance meeting.

Ms Curran said her office again contacted RNZ this week to say it was a pre-arranged meeting.

On Sunday, Ms Hirschfeld admitted the meeting was pre-planned, leading to her resignation yesterday.

Ms Curran said she may have been naive to hold the meeting, and would not have held it if she had known about RNZ protocols about meetings.

Stuff last night reported it had been told by an RNZ source that Ms Curran and Ms Hirschfeld communicated by text over a period of several days ahead of their meeting.

The meeting took place two days before Ms Curran met the RNZ board and top managers - sparking suspicions within RNZ that Ms Curran wanted to pump Ms Hirschfeld for information about potential roadblocks to Labour's plan for the state broadcaster to set up a free-to-air TV arm.

Board chairman Richard Griffin and chief executive Paul Thompson are known to be unenthusiastic about the TV plan, and would rather put the money into other platforms.

Ms Hirschfeld, who came to RNZ from a broadcasting background, backed the proposal.

Based on what Ms Hirschfeld had told them, Mr Griffin and Mr Thompson inadvertently misled a parliamentary select committee on March 1, telling MPs Ms Hirschfeld had been at the gym when she chanced upon Ms Curran.

Ms Curran was first asked about her meetings with RNZ staff on December 7.

She did not list her meeting with Ms Hirschfeld, and corrected her answer after being grilled about the meeting during Question Time on February 20.

Opposition leader Simon Bridges said Ms Curran was in ''real trouble'' for misleading Parliament in her original answer, but he stopped short of saying she should resign.

''This was in her diary. She left that out [of her written answer]. We're then left with the impression of something informal, something coincidental. That was patently false.

''Is that good enough? Frankly, I think it's misleading.''

Ms Ardern said she had full confidence in Ms Curran.

''She corrected the record. It just shouldn't have taken so long.''

-By Derek Cheng
 

How it unravelled

December 5: Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran meets  RNZ head of news Carol Hirschfeld  in Wellington and discusses, among other things, the future of RNZ.

December 5: Media commentator John Drinnan blogs about the meeting, saying any discussions about the future of RNZ should be with board chairman Richard Griffin or chief executive Paul Thompson.

December 7: National MP and broadcasting spokeswoman Melissa Lee asks Ms Curran for a list of meetings with RNZ staff since December 1. Ms Curran initially answers that she met Mr Thompson, Ms Hirschfeld and other senior RNZ staff on 

February 20: Ms Lee uses parliamentary question time to ask Ms Curran about meeting Ms Hirschfeld. Ms Curran eventually says she did not list the meeting in her written answer because she did not consider it to be an official meeting.

February 21: Ms Curran corrects her answer to Ms Lee's December 7 question, adding her December 5 meeting with Ms Hirschfeld.

March 1: At a select committee, Ms Lee questions Mr Thompson and Mr Griffin about the meeting and is told it was a chance encounter.

March 1: Ms Curran hears about the select committee hearing and her office tells RNZ  the meeting was pre-planned. Mr Thompson asks Ms Hirschfeld about the meeting again, and Ms Hirschfeld reassures him it was a chance encounter.

March 22: Ms Curran's office contacts RNZ again to tell them the meeting was pre-planned.

March 25: Following a tip-off to Mr Griffin, Ms Hirschfeld is asked again and admits the meeting was pre-arranged.

March 27: Ms Hirschfeld resigns. Ms Curran says it was a mistake to say the meeting was informal and unofficial. Jacinda Ardern says Ms Curran should have corrected her answer to the written question sooner, but has full confidence in the minister. 

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