Patrick Gower
Patrick James Gower is a New Zealand journalist for Stuff. Prior to his current role he was political editor and then national correspondent for Newshub ''.''
Early life
Gower grew up in New Plymouth where his father was a fitter and turner at a power station, and his mother was a doctor's receptionist. He had a Roman Catholic upbringing and schooling, having attended St Joseph's Catholic School and Francis Douglas Memorial College.Gower graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics from Victoria University of Wellington in 1999, having chosen that university because of its proximity to Parliament. While at Victoria, he was involved in Salient magazine. After finishing his politics degree, he studied journalism at Auckland University of Technology.
Journalism career
Gower started his journalism career working the graveyard shift at The New Zealand Herald, later becoming one of the newspaper's two police reporters. He subsequently moved to the UK and worked at Jane's Police Review. Once back in New Zealand he worked again at the Herald, covering politics and working under Audrey Young.Later he made a move to television journalism and began working at 3 News, where he was initially a political reporter. He has said that the transition involved a big change in reporting styles:
He took over as political editor of 3 News from Duncan Garner in November 2012.
Despite controversy about political bias on social networking sites, Gower claims to be a non-voter on the grounds of impartiality, stating:
In 2018, after five years as Newshub's political editor, he shifted roles to become its national correspondent. He maintained this role until Newshub’s closure in 2024.
On 20 August 2024, Stuff announced the hiring of Gower for its news operations.
In mid 2024, Radio New Zealand hired Gower as an occasional host. Gower hosted the King's Birthday programming and filled in for Kathryn Ryan on RNZ National's "Nine to Noon" programme. Gower also co-hosted the summer edition of RNZ National's "Morning Report" for two weeks in January 2025.
Viral skit
On 18 August 2014, Gower appeared in a skit by the University of Auckland Law School’s comedy revue, presenting a live report for 3 News in the campus’s library. In the skit, a library-goer stands up and says, "This is a fucking library!", to which Gower replies, "This is the fuckin' news." A remix of the video posted in December later went viral. He recreated the video in the same location as part of the announcement of his hiring by Stuff ten years later, with the profanity bleeped out.Cannabis documentary
In 2019, Gower featured in a two part documentary series Patrick Gower: On Weed where he explored issues related to medicinal and recreational cannabis before the 2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum. The documentary, produced by Three and funded by NZ on Air, was filmed in New Zealand and the United States. A final third episode was released in September 2020, in advance of the referendum which had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.''They Are Us'' script
In July 2021, Gower broke the story on a leaked draft script of the controversial They Are Us movie, which was based on the Christchurch mosque shootings. The proposed script was criticised by members of the New Zealand Muslim community as well as several politicians including National Party leader Simon Bridges, ACT Party David Seymour, and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters for its depiction of graphic violence, exploitation of the tragedy for commercial gain, and historical inaccuracies of the events relating to the mosque shootings. Gower was emotionally affected by the script and called upon the film's director and writer Andrew Niccol to withdraw from the film production.Later in the year, Gower presented a ThreeNow documentary on the shootings, Patrick Gower on Hate, which centred on the victims' viewpoints.