Bill English

Wellington, Nov 18 NZPA - Finance Minister Bill English and Labour's finance spokesman David Cunliffe were locked in a battle of egos in Parliament today.

They were sparring over a television appearance, after TVNZ said today it should not have run a promo featuring Mr English .

The 45 second ad to promote a new series called Focus on the Economy ran more than 30 times from October 18.

Critics, including Mr Cunliffe, said the promo seemed more like a party political broadcast.

National Party MPs had suggested Mr Cunliffe was just jealous he was not invited to take part in the series.

This afternoon Mr Cunliffe asked Mr English if he now thought he was wrong to appear in the advertisement.

"Now that TVNZ has admitted it was wrong to produce the Plain English ad, will he now admit that he was wrong to star in it?"

Mr English said he was "flattered" to be called a star.

"In my understanding that's a description he (Mr Cunliffe) usually only applies to himself.

"I understood the member's main concern...was that he didn't feature in the promotion alongside me, to which I can only say if he had something worthwhile and relevant to say, he would have been in the promotion."

Mr English said he made changes to the script for the ad because he thought it was "nonsense and I wouldn't say it".

Labour MP Brendon Burns revealed a document obtained under the Official Information Act which showed Mr English had changed 60 percent of the script.

He then described an email from Mr English's office to TVNZ "detailing the minister's shoe size, shirt size, trouser size and a amended copy of the script that the minister was now happy with".

The announcement caused laughter from the MPs and Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee said "that'll make the Christmas shopping easy".

TVNZ chief executive Rick Ellis said at Parliament's finance select committee meeting today it produced about 60 to 70 promos a week, which fell under creative services and not his direct responsibility.

"The promos are not part of the news and current affairs editorial process. That's marketing responsibility. So we might slip from time to time...in the editorial sense. We learn from that and we move on."

He said at the end of the day it was a promo and in "hindsight...we might have made a different judgment call."