Garth George: Interference a given when ministers appoint lackeys

So, Ian Fraser has finally had a gutsful, spat the dummy and told the Television New Zealand board - and through it the Government - to stick it.

I don't blame him. In fact, I see it much to his credit as a man that he's stuck it out as chief executive of TVNZ for as long as he has.

The interference from the Government through the TVNZ board must have been about as pleasant as a boil on the backside for all the time he has been in the hot seat.

And have no doubts that there has been interference. When a socialist Government appoints a bunch of its lackeys to run a Government-owned institution, there can be no question that interference will happen. It's the nature of the beast.

Helen Clark and Steve Maharey have insisted that there was no interference. Of course they would say that. The socialist propensity to interfere is so ingrained it has become second nature and they're not even aware that they're doing it. Control freaks rarely recognise their freakishness.

When Ms Clark avers that the resignation arose from a difference of opinion between the board and the chief executive, she is probably right.

But in dismissing any suggestion of an inquiry into the politically appointed board in the light of Mr Fraser's assertion that it has been acting beyond its brief, Ms Clark implies that her lapdogs can do no wrong and Mr Fraser is the bogey-man.

I very much doubt that. Mr Fraser has always shown himself to be a down-to-earth straight-shooter who is never afraid to call a spade a spade and tell it like it is (how's that for a string of cliches?) That in itself is enough to get him offside with those whose lives are lived in an atmosphere of prevarication and dissembling.

In any case, if the board tried to get Mr Fraser to micro-manage the appointment of a replacement for Judy Bailey and the contract negotiations with Susan Wood, as has been suggested, the accusation of interference is proved.

Speaking of the Bailey matter a few weeks ago, Mr Fraser pointed out - quite bluntly as usual - that it wasn't his decision and that he had every faith in his head of news and current affairs, Bill Ralston, to make it. No doubt he had the same attitude to the Wood business, which seems to have been the last straw.

"At the point at which the decision is made I will have extricated myself from the process. This one, importantly, is not my call," Mr Fraser was quoted as saying. "In terms of where we go from the beginning of 2006, the call on that appropriately belongs to the head of news and current affairs. I am confident he will get it right."

Now you couldn't be straighter than that. Yet the board obviously put pressure on Mr Fraser to go back on his statement. They have obviously never heard the adage, "You don't have dogs and bark yourself".

But there was more than that in Mr Fraser's endorsement of Mr Ralston's judgment. At the time, that worthy was in the public gun over the non-renewal of Judy Bailey's contract and in these days of almost paranoid backside-covering must certainly have appreciated his boss' vote of confidence.

And while we're on the subject of Judy Bailey I have nothing but contempt for those who whinged about her $800,000 contract.

She served TVNZ with dignity and flair for a lot of years and she was worth every penny of her salary. As a percentage of the revenue One News generated for the channel, it was peanuts. I'm not saying it wasn't time for a change, but I hope TVNZ gives her a huge golden handshake when she leaves at the end of the year. She has earned it. If it does, for heaven's sake would those concerned please keep it quiet?

Because it seems that many of the chattering and letter-writing classes seem to think they have some sort of proprietorial rights over TVNZ, and the outcry would be deafening.

And that, of course, is the reason for political interference. The Government daren't allow people like Mr Fraser and Mr Ralston to piss off the public because some of the opprobrium might land on its doorstep.

The real tragedy of the whole affair, of course, is that with Mr Fraser's resignation, Mr Ralston's position may become untenable - just at the time when he has managed to introduce a large breath of fresh air into the fetid atmosphere of enormous and insatiable egos with which TV news and current affairs is afflicted.

How sad it would be if the widespread reorganisation he has begun to effect was cut off, untested, at the knees.

If the Government wants to interfere in the operations of enterprises in which it has the principal stake, then it should interfere in the running of Air New Zealand.

As the national airline's major shareholder, the Government must tell Air NZ's board and chief executive that the outsourcing of engineering work is not on under any circumstances.

The airline says it will save $100 million a year if it contracts-out its heavy engineering work to firms in Europe or Asia, with the loss here of 600 highly skilled jobs.

I don't suppose it has occurred to the bean-counters and number-crunchers and people like Brian Gaynor, who can't read anything but a balance sheet, that the human and social cost to this country of such a move would make $100 million a year look like small change.