Duncan Garner

Duncan Garner (born 8 March 1974) is a New Zealand broadcaster and journalist.

Garner was born on 8 March 1974 on Auckland's North Shore, and attended Westlake Boys High School in Forest Hill.

He studied for a communications degree at Auckland University of Technology.

After receiving a degree in communications from AUT, Garner began his career at TVNZ in the mid 1990s, as a political reporter for veteran broadcaster Paul Holmes.

He started his career as a reporter for Television New Zealand in 1995, working on the current affairs show Holmes from 2000 to 2002.

Garner then moved to rival TV3 in 2003.

He was praised in his early career for his scoop-heavy journalism, winning the 2004 Newspaper Publishers' Association award for Television Political News Reporter after exposing a $195,000 golden handshake received by then-Labour Party MP John Tamihere.

He broke the story of a NZ$195,000 golden handshake that Labour Party MP John Tamihere received leaving the Waipareira Trust in October 2004.

The story prompted an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office, which caused Tamihere to resign from Cabinet.

Tamihere was later cleared of financial impropriety, and the story won Garner the 2004 Newspaper Publishers' Association award for Television News Reporter – Politics.

In August 2008, three months before the New Zealand general election, Garner broadcast audio tapes secretly recorded at a National Party cocktail party by Kees Keizer.

The tapes caught deputy leader Bill English saying he would sell Kiwibank, and MP Lockwood Smith saying National had to adopt policies the party did not like in order not to scare voters.

The broadcast earned Garner a nomination for Best News Reporting in the 2009 Qantas Film and Television Awards.

After a second nomination for the award, in 2010, Three launched the weekend current affairs programme The Nation with Garner as co-host.

Garner is known as an opinionated and sometimes divisive media personality, and has been described by the SBS as right-wing.

He is a noted critic of Jacinda Ardern's premiership, often criticising her government's policies on his shows.

He has been embroiled in several controversies to do with race and ethnicity.

In March 2010, TV3 launched the weekend current affairs programme The Nation, with Garner as co-host.

In the wake of the 2010 MPs expenses scandal, Labour Party politician Chris Carter alleged that Garner had a vendetta against him.

The head of TV3 news and current affairs Mark Jennings replied saying Garner did not have a grudge, and "Carter is a serial offender on expenses ... it's Duncan's job to shine the light on that."

He took over the Radio Live drive slot in December 2012 and was previously the Newshub political editor in Wellington.

In 2013, Garner hosted two new current affairs shows on TV3 – 3rd Degree and The Vote.

He moved to host The AM Show in 2017, which was broadcast on Three and Radio Live.

Garner left Three on 23 August 2021, after a career of almost 20 years with the channel.

In 2017, Garner wrote in his Stuff.co.nz newspaper column of a "human snake" in a Kmart queue, to comment on high levels of South Asians and Syrians immigrating to New Zealand.

The Press, who published his comments, found his comments to be in breach of anti-racism standards.

He is also noted for his impassioned response to Taika Waititi's criticism of racism in New Zealand, and criticism of the New Zealand government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Garner went onto present a mid-morning show for the news and talk radio station Today FM, which ceased broadcasting after just over a year on air.

He was retained by station owners Mediaworks to present a podcast.

In December 2017, Garner wrote a column for Stuff.co.nz entitled "Dear NZ, how do we want to look in 20 years?"

in which he advocated against liberal immigration policy.

In the column he claimed he saw a "massive human snake" of immigrants "crawling its way around the self-service" at the low-cost supermarket Kmart, which he attributed to heightened rates of Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans and Syrians immigrating to New Zealand.

He also claimed the scene was a "nightmarish glimpse into our future" that "could have been anywhere in Southeast Asia" and that "by 2038... there'll be more Asians than Māori... Does it matter? You bet it does."

Garner's comments caused widespread debate and outrage among many, and he was accused of being, among other things, a racist and a white supremacist.

Garner categorically denied the claims, which he attributed to "self-appointed wannabe intellectuals that believe they're truly superior".

In his defence he pointed to his Māori former partner, Mihingarangi Forbes, and the education of their children in a kura kaupapa Māori.

The council for The Press newspaper, who published his column, unanimously found that he had breached its principle on discrimination and diversity.

The panel wrote that "despite the writer's protestations to the contrary, his approach can only be seen as gratuitous racism".

Garner even suggested the comments amounted to treason, given Waititi had won the Kiwibank-awarded 2017 New Zealander of the Year.

In April 2018, Garner angrily responded to Taika Waititi's blunt description of racism in New Zealand in Dazed and Confused. Garner claimed Waititi's comments were "sabotage", and called Waititi a "clown" who was "getting on the world stage and denigrating this country".