Garth Bray

Before joining Fair Go in 2014, Garth Bray was living a fast-paced life as TVNZ’s Europe Correspondent in London. He chased stories around the globe, found himself in many dangerous situations and barely stayed in one place for long before hunting out the next exclusive.

Fair Go provided a wonderful contrast. “Easter was coming, so on my first day I had to hire a bunny suit and try to convince a colleague to wear it for a story. It was a big change from working out where to hire flak jackets!

“Fair Go is so different from the news,” he tells. “People come to us, and share their lives and their troubles. We have to work really hard to tell the story in a fun or interesting way, and then work even harder to try and make things better than we find them. News is fun too, but it’s a different kind of fun.”

The 49-year-old, who is married to artist Celeste Sterling and dad to Kellen,

12, was hired on a temporary basis to cover for veteran reporter Mark Crysell, who’d taken a couple of months off to spend with his newborn baby.

But eight years on, Garth is still there and loving the role as much as when he started. “Fair Go is special to Kiwis because we give a voice to the voiceless – mana reo, as we say here. That idea someone might have your back must be a huge comfort.”

The work he’s most proud of is his stories on meth cleanups – forcing the industry to look at homes and families affected by drug manufacturing.

“There was a lot of resistance to the story, but that’s when Fair Go is at its best, going against the grain to tell the truth.”