Dumped TV star's father takes swipe at fellow presenter

TV star Alison Mau has called in her lawyers over her dumping from Prime - while her father has taken a swipe at one of her fellow presenters and accused Prime TV's new owners of acting clumsily over the saga.

Mau is now seeking a payout on her three-year contract after her job negotiations with Prime's new owner, Sky Television, broke down a week ago.

Mau had wanted to be the new 5.30pm newsreader on Prime, replacing Suzy Clarkson (nee Aiken), but Prime announced last week it had gone for former TVNZ newsreader Eric Young, with Clarkson reading sport and weekend news.

Mau's father has waded into the controversy, saying his daughter's qualifications are better than Clarkson's, and she should have got the job.

"Ali has put up nearly 20 years in the game, she has worked for the major organisation in Australia, she worked for BBC world television presenting their finance programme. I think she's more qualified but that's a personal opinion," said Leigh Mau.

Referring to Clarkson, he said: "Would you consider a broadcasting course and an Emmy award a good qualification for journalism?"

Mr Mau even wrote a letter to a newspaper - before the negotiations between his daughter and Sky TV broke down - saying Mau had always wanted to be a journalist, came from a family of editors and journalists and was more qualified than Clarkson, a former aerobics instructor.

He has spoken to Mau since she was dumped from Prime and she was consulting her lawyer. "It's a very clumsy piece of work on [Sky's] behalf, quite frankly, but that is being handled at her end by her lawyer," he said.

Mau insisted yesterday she had no issue with Clarkson and that, "Dad's letter was written as a proud father ... he was thinking about his little girl."

Clarkson said she did not want to get into a slanging match with Mau's father - "that's not my style".

But she was surprised by his comments and questioned whether he had done any research on her. "Fathers are always biased towards their daughters - some more than others. But did he even Google me?"

Clarkson won an American Emmy Award in 2000 when she stood in for ABC anchor Diane Sawyer during a Millennium Special where she crossed live to late ABC host Peter Jennings.

She was a features reporter for ESPN International and Outdoor Life Network USA and gained distinction in a post-graduate broadcast journalism diploma at the University of Central England. She also gained a BBC scholarship, working on Midlands Today in Birmingham.

Clarkson said she was proud of her aerobics history and there were plenty of presenters with sporting pasts.

She has not spoken to Alison Mau about her father's comments. "The last conversation I had with her was when I thanked her for doing an item for my bulletin that night. I haven't spoken to her about this."

Mau - who joined Prime as a Holmes show reporter - said yesterday her first preference would be to have the newsreading job with Prime, but otherwise she wanted to be paid out for the remaining two years of her contract.

She said she had been told several times by Sky that she had the presenting job.

Sky would not comment yesterday, other than to say it had been unable to reach agreement with Mau.

It referred the Herald on Sunday to Prime Australia. Prime chief executive Warwick Syphers said it was a "great surprise" Mau and Sky had not reached agreement; he understood the Sky deal was "as good as, if not better" than Mau's existing contract. He said the matter had now become a legal issue.

Mau said the past week had been tough on her both personally and professionally and she had been left bewildered over the failed negotiations.

Mau said she had not been seeking more money from Sky and there were no issues about editorial control. Asked whether Sky wanted to cut her pay, she said she could not discuss details. She said there were important changes Sky wanted to make to her contract - she said they were significant but solvable. She would not divulge details.

"This has been hard on my family, particularly the children. [Husband Simon Dallow's] been wonderful. I am lucky to have someone like him in his position. And I have told him that a lot in recent times."

Mau said she had absolutely no problem with Clarkson. She didn't know what she might do in future, or whether she'd like another chance at TVNZ. "I haven't even thought about it ... This may give me an option to get back into writing ..."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY