Friday, March 23, 2012

Dirty Deals

John Drinnan has more news of property confiscations by John Key's dirty dealing. The sell-offs of the radio spectrum currently used by Free to Air channels will not be fed back into public broadcasting at all. Then there's the fait accompli sell-off of TVNZ's Death Star to Sky City:
One of the interesting aspects of the Government negotiations with SkyCity and the inclusion of TVNZ land in proposals for a new convention centre has been the fact that the Government and Ministry of Economic Development has not consulted with the broadcaster about the cost of any land deal and the loss of its creative hub.

The Government says TVNZ is free to negotiate, but practically speaking TVNZ will have no choice but to sell if the Sky proposal is agreed, and is on the back foot in negotiating.

It seems, ahem, unconventional.