Legal wrangle over ‘Te Papa’ show ends
Te Papa spent almost $7000 on legal costs attempting to get online series Get It to Te Papa to change its name.
But the legal threats dried up after The Spinoff, which produced the show, agreed to drop an Official Information Act request to the institution, Stuff understands.
The show aired on Spark’s Lightbox service and sees Spinoff journalist Hayden Donnell attempt to get a new set of Kiwi cultural artefacts into Te Papa, New Zealand’s national museum in Wellington. These items included the dildo that was thrown at Steven Joyce and the ‘‘Let’s Gone Warriors’’ sign.
A disclaimer at the end of each episode makes clear that Te Papa has not endorsed the show, and Te Papa staff do not appear on camera. That disclaimer was the result of months of negotiation after Te Papa decided it didn’t want to be involved in the show, and $6770 in legal costs.
In documents obtained by Stuff under the Official Information Act (OIA), it is clear Te Papa has a legal issue with the show’s use of the Te Papa brand, although most of these emails are redacted, some refer to an ‘‘unlawful use of Te Papa’’ and ‘‘advice from lawyers’’.
These issues appear to have cleared up after some kind of ‘‘without prejudice’’ agreement, which follows several emails that are entirely redacted. Stuff understands this agreement was reached after The Spinoff made an OIA request of Te Papa seeking all internal communications concerning the show and a summary of legal costs. It’s understood Te Papa then agreed to drop any proposed legal action in exchange for the OIA request being withdrawn and an undertaking that The Spinoff would not focus on the ‘‘Te Papa’’ part of the title when promoting the show.
A spokeswoman for Te Papa said since the institution doesn’t have an in-house legal adviser the costs were ‘‘reasonable’’.
Managing editor of The Spinoff Duncan Greive declined to comment. After nine months of failed repairs, another attempt to fix sticky Ka¯piti roads is about to take place.
Mazengarb Rd and Guildford Drive have been plagued with problems since April, when loose gravel and tar damaged cars and property.
Contractor Downer NZ tried three times to fix the chipseal but now Ka¯ piti Coast District Council says the roads will be asphalted.
Final costs and how the work will be paid for is yet to be decided, council spokesman Sean Mallon said.
The roading trouble began when about 4 kilometres of busy Paraparaumu roads were left with exposed tar and drifts of gravel after Downer was contracted by the council to reseal them.
The council had not paid for the work and would not pay until it was satisfactorily completed, a spokesman said at the time.
The resulting sticky, stony mess was blamed on poor weather; motorists complained of chipped windscreens, damaged paint and tar stuck to driveways and garage floors.
The council said Downer was responsible for the damage and repairs but some affected motorists criticised the com-