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Bill English - Source: ONE News -
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The finance minister is caught in two controversies as the final report on his housing allowances is released and he is also tangled up in a political storm over claims he has been getting free advertising from a promotion for a show on the economy.
Politicians crave publicity and will generally pay top dollar for it but this time it was free for the deputy prime minister as he is shown in an ad saying: "We have under-performed compared to the per capita income growth of Australia... you know we can beat those Aussies."
The ad is actually a promotion for a current affairs series called Spotlight on the Economy which will screen on TVNZ's digital channel TVNZ 7. But media experts believe it looks like a party political broadcast.
"It felt like I was back in 2002...when he was the leader of the National Party and I thought well this is just so bizarre," says Claire Robinson from Massey University.
National's own ad says: "This country faces many challenges - a fading economy, the billions of dollars left on world markets, falling incomes of our exporters."
The TVNZ 7 promo cost $16,000 to make and will screen about 130 times before the end of November.
TVNZ 7 did not pay for the advertising because it is an in-house promo. But a 30-second slot during Breakfast TV would cost advertisers about $1500 while during ONE News it would cost more than $11,000.
Labour's finance spokesman David Cunliffe asked in the House whether English would concede that it wasn't a good look for a shareholding minister to take hundreds of thousands of dollars of free advertising from a state broadcaster but English said National doesn't tell television companies how to do their business.
"They run stories about me which are very unflattering, that's part of the business...sometimes it's good for you, sometimes it's not good for you," English said.
TVNZ 7 claims the promo was never supposed to be political but ONE News political editor Guyon Espiner says that seems naive because where a politician is involved politics usually isn't far away.
Meanwhile, the Auditor-General's office has confirmed there are no grounds for an inquiry into any aspects of English's housing arrangements. A report found English does have an indirect financial interest in the trust that owns his Karori home, but being reimbursed for rental costs was not exceptional.
