Hipkins concerned about partisan media emerging if Steven Joyce chairs NZME

Tuesday, 6 May 2025

Labour leader Chris Hipkins says he is concerned about a partisan private media emerging after NZ Herald owner NZME suggested former National Party senior minister and campaign manager Steven Joyce should chair the firm.

NZME said in a statement to investors on Tuesday morning that Joyce had been nominated as a director and said its board had initiated the approach.

“NZME’s board is of the view that Joyce should then be appointed as chairman,” NZME said in a statement to the NZX.

But Hipkins said that “at a time when the independence of the media is being severely challenged, I think having a former National Party prime ministerial aspirant chairing the board of NZME will be very, very difficult for that company”.

“It will draw into question their editorial stance, and I think that would be very unfortunate for the very many credible people who work for that organisation,” he told The Post.

NZME said it believed Joyce’s “expertise in media, politics and governance” would be highly valuable to it.

Current chairperson Barbara Chapman had advised NZME that if Joyce was appointed as a director as its annual meeting next month, she would resign from the board, it said.

But in the event that Joyce wasn’t voted in, Chapman did not currently intend to resign, it said.

Wealthy Canadian-born investor Jim Grenon who had been attempting a boardroom coup at NZME along with other wealthy Kiwis and bloggers, had been seeking the position of chairperson.

But he said he would happily be a director with another person as chair “as long as it is the right person and they are aligned with the broad agenda I have proposed”.

“I would have to talk to Steven Joyce but he certainly comes with top credentials,” he said.

Joyce has been approached for comment.

Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith declined to comment on whether he thought his former colleague would make a good chairperson of NZME, saying that was not something on which he would speculate.

“Ultimately that is something for the shareholders of NZME to decide,” he said.

Grenon has previously said he wants NZME to appeal to a “broader political spectrum”.

Labour Party former media spokesperson Willie Jackson voiced alarm over Grenon’s attempted boardroom coup in March.

Jackson described it as the “last thing we need in the media — another alt-right rich guy who hates anything that resembles diversity”.

That drew a rebuke from Grenon who described Jackson as “a fool for talking about things he knows nothing about”.

Grenon’s other director nominees have included conservative blogger and lawyer Philip Crump and businessman Desmond Gittings, the managing director of private equity firm Caniwi Capital, which is chaired by high-profile conservative Troy Bowker, a vocal opponent of a capital gains tax.

Under what NZME described as its “alternative proposal”, Carol Campbell and Guy Horrocks would remain directors of NZME and be joined by businessman Bowen Pan.

Sussan Turner, who needs to retire by rotation at the annual meeting, was currently considering her position, it said.