by Metropol | October 28, 2026 8:35 am
When he was 16 years old, Jack Tame wanted to be the next Paul Holmes. “We were asked in sixth form English what our dream job would be,” Jack recalls. “I remember saying, ‘I’d love to be Paul Holmes one day. He’s got an amazing job.’”
For those who weren’t around, Paul was our most influential broadcaster of the 1990s. He changed the face of New Zealand broadcasting with a primetime current affairs show that ran five nights a week for 15 years.
I am talking to Jack via video call. His familiar face and warm smile fills my computer screen. Behind him, I can see the buzz of the TVNZ newsroom.
As host of TVNZ’s political show Q+A and a presenter at Newstalk ZB and 1News, Jack is as cool, unflustered and disarmingly friendly as you’d expect if you’d watched or heard the 39-year-old anytime in the last 20 years doing his job as a radio journalist and television presenter. For more than two decades, Jack has been one of the key people keeping us up to speed on the big stories of the day. It’s a role he was unknowingly preparing for as a “news-obsessed” boy growing up on Christchurch’s Huntsbury Hill, where he had, he says, the best childhood.
“It was the kind of blissful, idyllic childhood that so many of us aspire to. I was the eldest of four, and we enjoyed all the great things about Christchurch. We could just walk up the road and be in the Port Hills. You’d have your face in the easterly as it blew up across Banks Peninsula. You turn 180 degrees and see the edge of Banks Peninsula, all around Pegasus Bay, up to North Canterbury, along the Southern Alps and down the Canterbury Plains. You take it for granted as a kid, but I look back at it now and, my God, I crave the outdoors of Christchurch that I enjoyed as a child. For my job I have to live in Auckland now, and there’s nothing up here that compares. What I would give to be able to go mountain biking every day after work.”
From skiing in winter and boogie boarding at Taylors Mistake after school in summer, Jack says his family enjoyed the best outdoor activities that Canterbury had to offer. It is still, he believes, the best place to live.
“It’s so cliched, but Christchurch is so different to other big cities in New Zealand right now. The vibes in Christchurch are so good compared to Auckland, Wellington, almost everywhere. Obviously, the economic conditions are a little better, but also it just feels like a city where people are really happy to be. It feels alive. Given everything it’s been through, it’s just so nice to see the city in that place where it’s a place that people want to be.”
News hound
Of course, there is a reason that Jack is now based in Auckland, with his wife, fellow award-winning journalist Mava Moayyed, their son, Māni, and Jack’s stepson Rumi. The former Cashmere High student is one of TVNZ’s most recognisable faces and the person who questions our most influential figures on the issues that affect our lives. It’s a responsibility he takes very seriously, but more on that soon. First, let’s meet Jack as the boy who devoured the news.
“As a kid, I loved news. I mean, I loved news. I’d get up before 6am every morning to collect The Press from the end of the driveway as soon as it was delivered, to read with my dad over breakfast.
“We would silently trade parts of the paper. He would read the front section while I read the sport, and then we would trade. At the time, I didn’t think this was unusual; I was just really curious about all of the different people, places and personalities. I was curious about how the world worked. Reading the newspaper every day seemed like the easiest way to understand it. In fact, I was going through some old family albums, there was a certificate from when I was 10 years old, awarded to me for my keen interest in news and current affairs, which is so funny.”
Fast forward to a 16-year-old Jack. He finds his journalism tribe at Ara and – with a shining recommendation from Jason Gunn – is accepted to study broadcasting. From there, he lands a part-time job on Breakfast with TVNZ and – the quintessential company man – he’s still there as he looks to celebrating his 40th birthday in March.
Election circus
In case you haven’t noticed, a general election is fast approaching. Jack believes the media plays a critical role in upholding the process of democracy.
“I see my job as being a place where the country’s most powerful people are held to account and can have serious conversations about the trade-offs that are inherent in public policy,” Jack says.
“I know that people will roll their eyes at that and say, ‘Oh, well, that’s a very hoity-toity, high and mighty perspective.’ And granted, I’ve got skin in the game, but I think it’s absolutely vital that people in power are challenged and held to account, and that’s the media’s role.”
He believes the media must help the public understand the competing interests that shape government policy.
“First of all, Q&A is publicly funded through New Zealand on Air, which means we have a public mandate to make public interest journalism. In my view, a lot of people think that decision-making in politics is a zero-sum game and that there’s always a right and a wrong thing to do, but most of the time, policymakers are just trying to weigh up a collection of bad options. They just have to try and go with the least bad.”
He believes that viewing one side as good and the other as evil prevents meaningful discussion.
“The longer I’m in this job, the more I think that hypocrisy in politics is universal, and that tribalism is a poison in our society. Thankfully, we’re not like the United States, but the social media age has led us into this place where we are more and more tribal. So more people think, ‘my team is always right, your team is always wrong and evil’. In my experience, that just isn’t true. No person, politician, or party has a monopoly on good ideas, and no one is without bad ideas.
“I always try to keep that in mind while acknowledging that point I was making about trade-offs being inherent in policymaking. There’s always an upside and a downside to things. If you can recognise that, even if there’s someone you might disagree with, you can see that they are looking at a problem in a different way.
I also think the capacity to be genuinely open-minded is just such an underrated quality in this day and age, and I constantly strive for that. I’m often playing a devil’s advocate role, because if you force yourself to play devil’s advocate, you are being proactive in trying to be as open-minded as possible, and you’re less seduced by the tribal urges that poison our politics.”
Yet he is acutely aware that public trust in the media has diminished. He points to the digital revolution and the rise of social media as major disruptive forces, while acknowledging that the media itself bears some responsibility for changing perceptions of its role. The commercial pressures are significant, too. As traditional media organisations struggle to sustain their business models, the temptation to chase online traffic can come at a cost.
“The stories that get the clicks are not necessarily the stories that are the most helpful,” he observes.
“I think I have an important role in trying to rebuild public trust in journalism, so that people can watch our show and go, ‘You know what? There’s someone from the left. Jack gave them a hard time. There’s someone from the right. Jack gave them a hard time. There’s someone in the middle. Jack gave them a hard time.’ The thing that I constantly want people to take away from the show is that, regardless of what party a politician is from, ultimately, if they are in a powerful position, I am doing my best to hold them to account.”
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Quickfire with Jack Tame
Most memorable interview? David Attenborough. I interviewed him over a bottle of wine in Antarctica. That’s a tough one to beat.
An interview that didn’t go well? Richard Dawkins. That old impulse of feeling like an idiot.
Who would you like to interview? Sam Altman [CEO of OpenAI] or the leadership of Anthropic, Dario Amodei. The debate over AI is a defining one of our time.
Where do you like to hang out when you’re in Christchurch? At C1. With a muffin and a small flat white.
Your favourite TV show? Grand Designs, I’m an absolute sucker for it. When they say, ‘everything’s going to be done on budget by Christmas’ I’m like ‘nooooo’ at the screen.
Exercise of choice? Mountain biking. I ride a lot and cycle to work.
You’ve become a dad recently? Yeah, Māni is 19 months old. There’s my stepson Rumi as well, he’s nine. They’re both Persian names because of my wife’s Iranian heritage. It’s bliss, it changes everything.
How would you sum up the upcoming election in three words? For me, the word is ‘riveted’. For the election, the words are ‘bad, spirited, tight’.
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