Paul Holmes pockets $740,000

By ALAN PERROTT


Veteran current affairs presenter Paul Holmes pocketed a salary of up to $740,000 in the past year, says Television New Zealand's annual report.

While the report, released yesterday in Wellington, did not put names to the salary figures it disclosed, Holmes has been widely acknowledged as TVNZ's highest-paid earner.

The figures show he received a $20,000 to $30,000 pay rise over the past financial year, pushing him into the $730,001 to $740,000 band. This salary does not include his earnings as a radio talkback host on NewstalkZB.

Holmes' boss, TVNZ chief executive Ian Fraser, took home the company's second-highest paypacket of between $610,000 and $620,000 - about $100,000 less than Holmes.

Mr Fraser yesterday denied there was a climate of excess at TVNZ.

The report said the number of employees earning more than $100,000 had fallen from 161 to 124.

Four TVNZ employees were listed as earning more than $430,000 - half the number disclosed the previous year.

Mr Fraser said the fall was an artificial comparison due to TVNZ's broadcasting arm now reporting as a separate company, Transmission Holdings (THL).

The Government created the company last December from Broadcasting Communications Ltd and TVNZ (Australia), each formerly part of TVNZ.

TVNZ earned more than three times the revenue of THL and had three times the number of staff.

The report also said TVNZ had failed to sell the corporate box at Westpac Stadium in Wellington bought in controversial circumstances by former chairman Ross Armstrong.