Holmes gets $15,000pw for nothing

TVNZ is paying Paul Holmes $60,000 a month until the end of the year to do nothing while waiting to front his new show on competitor Prime TV.

The figure was revealed during a grilling of the state broadcaster's chief executive, Ian Fraser, by Parliament's finance and expenditure select committee yesterday.

NZ First leader Winston Peters asked Mr Fraser how TVNZ justified paying Holmes twice the average annual wage a month to sit at home planning a show for a competitor.

Mr Fraser said TVNZ had been "contractually obliged" to pay.

He also claimed Prime was hatching a campaign to suggest TVNZ had been commercially negligent in letting the veteran broadcaster go.

TVNZ chairman Craig Boyce also defended the contract, saying it was standard practice in the commercial world and was termed "garden leave".

A public spat between Mr Fraser, head of news Bill Ralston and Holmes, 54, was played out in the media this month when Holmes announced he was leaving to host a current affairs show on Prime from the start of next year.

Mr Fraser said yesterday that he had no regrets about the handling of Holmes' departure, and denied the issue ever got out of hand.

He said TVNZ had been re-negotiating Holmes' contract for next year, but TVNZ had been unable to accept the terms he had sought.

Holmes' contract meant TVNZ was legally obliged to pay him until the end of the year.

"We are legally obliged to do that, and at $60,000 or whatever it is, a month, that would buy a helluva lot of gold watches."

Holmes was TVNZ's highest-paid earner, receiving between $730,000 and $740,000 a year.

Under questioning from National MP Katherine Rich about the way TVNZ farewelled Holmes, Mr Fraser said people had to get their heads around the fact that Holmes had not retired.

"This man, in an industry which is extraordinarily competitive, is moving to a competitor."

* Claims that a TVNZ manager was dismissed from television production company South Pacific Pictures after allegations of financial mismanagement had no substance, Mr Fraser told the committee.

Act MP Deborah Coddington had made the claim about the head of commissioning and production Tony Holden.

Mr Fraser said TVNZ knew there had been a dispute over "money and content rights" between Mr Holden and the company, but it had been rapidly settled.

Mr Fraser said TVNZ had a robust recruitment process for checking prospective employees, and an enormous amount of checking had been done on Mr Holden.

"No one was charged, there was no conviction for any crime."