TV veteran: ‘ I’ve had a pretty good run’
After nearly 40 years on our screens, veteran broadcaster Peter Williams has confirmed he will be leaving TVNZ at the end of next year.
Williams revealed the news during an interview with the Bay of Plenty Times, explaining his colleagues have known for a while.
“I’ve had a pretty good run. Been to quite a few places and done enough stuff,” he said.
Williams, who is widely regarded as TVNZ’s most popular newsreader, will step down in December next year before celebrating his 65th birthday the following March.
Williams, originally a sports journalist, has fronted some of New Zealand’s biggest news events, including several Olympic Games and the Pike River disaster in 2010.
Last year, Williams was among the casualties of TVNZ’s Breakfast revamp, which saw Nadine Chalmers- Ross and Rawdon Christie replaced by Jack Tame and Hilary Barry.
While Williams continued his weekend newsreading duties, he admitted he was “a little bit annoyed” by the forced move.
“That’s life. I’d had a pretty good run,” he said. “I’m more than happy to sleep through the night and wake up naturally. It actually makes quite a bit of difference to your body, your lifestyle, the way you feel about life.”
Williams revealed he is not particularly close to any of his TVNZ colleagues, saying: “For instance, when Sarah and I got married, how many people from work came? None.”
He said he has no plans for a big send- off following his final broadcast. “Oh, I don’t think I’ll make a big song and dance about it. I think I’ll just quietly slip away.” A MetService meteorologist is describing 2017 as “the year it didn’t stop raining”. Waikato and Bay of Plenty rainfall are already at record levels, and extreme rainfall levels are being recorded across the north and east of the North Island, and along the eastern South Island. “January to September rainfall records have been smashed in the Waikato and greater Bay of Plenty region,” said meteorologist Georgina Griffiths. “It has also been an extremely wet yearto- date for Auckland.” Many locations, including Tauranga, Te Puke, Hamilton, Gisborne, Rotorua, Taupo, Paraparaumu, Christchurch and Ashburton, have all received more rain so far in 2017 than they usually get in a year. “For many of us, 2017 may well be remembered as the year it didn’t stop raining,” Griffiths said. A man wanted for aggravated robbery had been released on parole, after serving most of his sentence for a brutal home invasion where he hogtied an elderly woman. Rangi Roy Pauu was released from prison on April 18 this year after serving about six years of a seven- and- a- half- year sentence. The Parole Board has issued a recall warrant to return Pauu to prison for an alleged breach of his conditions. The Ministry of Social Development is challenging a decision that deemed its use of false names and signatures in legal documents unlawful. The practice was labelled “repugnant to the most fundamental concept of justice” in a stinging tribunal ruling released this week. The ruling, from the little- known Social Security Appeals Authority, revealed despite warnings the ministry had continued to use false names. The MSD yesterday lodged an appeal against the authority’s interlocutory decision. Children in the South Island are up to three times more likely to suffer debilitating inflammatory bowel diseases ( IBDs) than their northern counterparts. That’s according to a first- of- its- kind study by Otago University researchers who say the difference could be partly put down to sunlight and its impact on vitamin D levels. The data, collected in 2015, showed between 40 and 60 children per 100,000 had a diagnosis of an IBD in the South Island. In the North Island, the rate was between 10 and 20. Cannabis has been found under the postage stamps of incoming prisoner mail at Invercargill Prison. A search of the incoming mail revealed the drugs this week, after two letters were addressed to the same prisoner, making staff suspicious. Prison director Daryl Tamati said a small amount of cannabis leaf was found under the stamps. Respected broadcaster, journalist and businessman David Beatson has died after a long illness. Beatson was born in Dunedin in 1944 and began his career in journalism as a cadet at the Otago Daily Times in 1962. His career spanned newspaper, magazine, radio and television journalism. He worked on Current Affairs, News at Six and Eyewitness News. He was also editor of the Listener, chairman of New Zealand on Air and chief press secretary for Prime Minister Jim Bolger. He worked in tourism too as the deputy chief executive of New Zealand Tourism.