The Government has fully scrapped its plans to merge TVNZ and RNZ, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has announced.
The previously-longstanding plans for public broadcasting would have seen both organisations merged into a singular national broadcaster.
Hipkins said that work on the new media entity would "stop entirely" and that support for public media should be "at a lower cost."
"Work on the TVNZ-RNZ public media entity will stop entirely. Support for public media needs to be at a lower cost and without such significant structural change," the PM said.
"Cabinet has agreed to provide Radio New Zealand with additional funding to strengthen its public media role.
"New Zealand on Air will also receive additional funding to support public media content and that funding will be available to a wider range of broadcasters.
New Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said work on the new media entity would “stop entirely”. (Source: 1News)
"Remaining funding will be redirected to other Government priorities."
The move was widely tipped amid a "refocus" of government policy on Wednesday.
Political reporter Cushla Norman has the numbers from an exclusive 1News Kantar Public Poll. (Source: 1News)
Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson has previously said that the merger was proposed in response to the emergence of digital media and the decline of commercial advertising revenue.
The new entity would have operated with both public funding and revenue from advertising. Work on the merger has so far cost the Government nearly $15 million since it was first mooted in 2019.
But the push to create a unified public media company has received a lukewarm response from other media companies, and the public.
In the latest 1News Kantar Public Poll, we asked: "Do you support or oppose the merger?" - 28% said they were for it, 41% against and the rest didn't know or didn't answer.
"There's been a lack of information about what this new bill is actually proposing. The Government has to take some responsibility for not explaining that more clearly," Better Public Media Trust's Peter Thompson said last month.
This morning, National leader Christopher Luxon said the scheme was a "total, utter, and insane waste of money." The opposition has long-criticised the Government's media merger plans.
Policy bonfire begins, with more to come
In his announcement, Hipkins also scrapped a number of other significant policies that were originally intended to be progressed during this term of Government.
He said it would be the "first set" of more reprioritisation decisions to come.
The deferred priorities included a long-awaited income insurance scheme that was first committed-to in the 2021 Budget. Under the proposed scheme, people could have been paid 80% of their wage for up to seven months after they lost their job.
"The social insurance scheme is off the table and will not proceed as proposed. We will need to see a significant improvement in economic conditions before anything is advanced," the PM said.
"Work will continue to explore ways to best address these inequities in the long term when the economy is better placed to make change. But it is off the table for now."
Hate speech law reforms to protect religious communities would also be shunted off the Government's agenda.
"The Human Rights Amendment Bill will be withdrawn, and the matter referred to the Law Commission. This will allow the Law Commission the opportunity to consider a difficult and highly contested area of law in totality," the PM said.
The plan to reform the laws originated from the Government's response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack. The commission's inquiry found existing laws were inadequate with dealing with hate speech.
The proposed amendment to the Human Rights Act had already been significantly watered-down from the Government's original proposals late last year.
'Bread and butter' issues take focus
While Jacinda Ardern resigned as prime minister three weeks ago, a refocus of the Government's policy agenda has been on the cards since December.
But new PM Hipkins has repeatedly emphasised that the "Government’s number one priority will be the cost of living" with a new focus on "core bread and butter issues".
“I said the Government is doing too much too fast, and that we need to focus on the cost of living. Today we deliver on that commitment," the PM said.
The National Party leader said policies including Three Waters and the TVNZ-RNZ merger should go. (Source: Breakfast)
Speculation over the Government's election-year policy choices has suggested that other non-critical initiatives will be either scrapped or put on the slow track.
Hipkins' first policy announcement was an unexpected U-turn on extending the Government's half-price public transport and fuel excise duty discount last week.
"He's asked us to go back and relook at everything that we're doing to make sure our prioritisation is on those issues that are affecting people in their everyday lives," Finance Minister Grant Robertson told RNZ.
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