THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2025
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SEPTEMBER 11, 2025
‘Cautious’ call on show By Chris Gardner
Waitomo mayoral candidate Janette Osborne was expecting national television coverage on Sunday, and to put her case for election to voters on Monday, but she got neither opportunity. TVNZ made an 11th hour decision to postpone Sunday’s episode of Country Calendar featuring Osborne and her family following a complaint that she was being given an unfair advantage. Monday’s meet the candidate meeting in Piopio was postponed for a week following the early morning shootout that day near Piopio between police and fugitive Marokopa father Tom Phillips resulting in the officer being critically injured and Phillips’ death. Osborne, who runs the 1300-hectare Te Toko Station near Waitomo with her husband Kim and her in laws Bob and Judy, was due to feature in Sunday’s episode. “On Friday we were advised by TVNZ that due to an ‘abundance of caution’ the episode of Country Calendar featuring our family was to be postponed,” Osborne told The News. “This was as a result of the political complaint that was made directly to TVNZ. Complaints that result in personal and financial loss through other channels feel completely wrong to me,” she said. Osborne said she regarded the complaint as a personal attack on her family and business and left “a very bad taste in my mouth about the state of our local democracy”. “We need to be supporting small
Janette Osborne stopped promoting her appearance on Country Calendar on her mayoral campaign Facebook page after she received a call from the producer.
businesses bringing in income from outside our district – not destroying them. “ She understood the programme was likely to run at the end of November – “which is very unfortunate timing as wool products do not sell well in summer”.
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“It was also hoped that the Hollow Hill scenes would provide free publicity for Waitomo Caves tourism in a very slow part of the year. All this promotion for free – at no cost to ratepayers.” Country Calendar producer Dan Henry told The News last Wednesday the episode mentioned
Osborne’s role as a district councillor and mayoral hopeful, but he did not believe the episode needed to be postponed. By Friday TVNZ had changed its mind. “It’s a great story and we’re looking forward to bringing it to viewers very soon. We made this call out of an abundance of caution
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for everyone involved, due to its proximity to the election,” Henry said. Chief returning officer Warwick Lamp emailed Osborne on Sunday saying he had not received a complaint, and she had not broken any election rules. “In my experience TVNZ can be very cautious about these things,” he said. The News sought comment from Osborne’s political opponents. Sitting mayor John Robertson said whether the programme should be aired now was a question for TVNZ – but suggested his rival had used Country Calendar as a vehicle to promote herself just before ballot papers were distributed. Fellow mayoral candidate Richard Ross was supportive of Osborne: “There’s no real difference between the mayor giving an interview on national news recently and Janette promoting her appearance on Country Calendar.” Mayoral candidate Natasha Willison-Reardon, who is also standing against Osborne in the Waitomo Rural Ward, did not respond. One Waitomo Rural Ward candidate, Nichola Painter, saw no connection between the programme and her campaign but another, Gavin Todd, objected to Osborne promoting the episode on her campaign page and was happy once she took it down. • More election coverage – pages 4 and 5.
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