Craig launches defamation case against Key

Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, March 5th, 2014 - 18 comments
Categories: conservative party, Satire - Tags: ,

In a surprise move Conservative leader Colin Craig has announced that he is suing John Key in defamation.

Lawyers for Mr Craig, who leads the Conservative Party, have written to Mr Key asserting that recent comments made by Key and reported in the NZ Herald are untrue and defamatory.

The Herald reported Key as saying this:

Prime Minister John Key indicated he believed Mr Craig needed to harden up.

“If Mr Craig is going to be part of the Parliamentary process to be honest he’s going to have to get used to a lot more rough and tumble than he’s currently demonstrating.

“We all learn to develop a thicker skin as we spend our time here. The reality is this is the nature of Parliament.”

Mr Key repeated his advice last week to his potential minor party allies including Mr Craig and Act Leader Jamie Whyte: “In the end, I think New Zealanders are interested in the issues that matter.

“People get up in the morning concerned about their jobs, their children, their health, their families, the communities they live in not whether Elvis is still alive, man walked on the moon or whether Russel Norman might have a view about what Colin Craig thinks about certain issues.”

Mr Craig is demanding an apology and retraction which gets similar coverage as Mr Key’s original comments, otherwise his lawyers say they will take further action under the Defamation Act.

Mr Craig’s lawyers said that Key’s comments crossed the boundary of what is legal or acceptable, even in an election year.

In a letter to Mr Key, Craig’s lawyers alleged the statement “harms his reputation in that it says that he is weak and thin skinned and implies that he believes Elvis is alive and that the moon landing was faked.”

In a later move Craig said announced that the claim would be split into two parts as a strategic move.  “The cynic might say I’m just wanting to cherry-pick. There is an element of that in the strategy of it all. But his comments were absolutely wrong and they’re no less wrong because we’re putting a quarter of the case on hold.”

Mr Craig said including Mr Key’s comment about Elvis being alive in the claim would be costly and time-consuming because National would seek the thousands of emails and documents Mr Craig held in relation to the issue.

When contacted Mr Key declined to comment but could be seen feeding pieces of red meat to blogger Cameron Slater while attempting to get Slater to attack a blown up doll that resembled Craig.

…

And on a more serious note if you want to donate to Russel Norman’s defence fund the details are here.

 

18 comments on “Craig launches defamation case against Key ”

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  1. lprent 1
    5 March 2014 at 12:03 pm

    Good idea about putting the [Satire] tag on the excerpt. It may help Crazy Colin with his thin-skinned difficulties with observing what is the objective world, satire, and his rich fantasy life (that he calls “reality”).

    Always nice to help out other distressed citizens.

  2. Rodel 2
    5 March 2014 at 12:15 pm

    When Obama engaged in a little satire about his place of birth, at a media function, he singled out the “Fox News’ table and explained just for them that it was actually a joke.
    Perhaps you should tag your satire, “Colin-this is a joke” just to make it clear to him.

    [Good idea! – MS]

  3. Jim Nald 3
    5 March 2014 at 12:46 pm

    Colorectal has nothing to hide and volunteers to disclose the contents of all his hard drives, text messages and phone records available for all to inspect and search ….
    —> this is a joke

    “I’ve nothing to hide in my emails: Craig”
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11213974

  4. Armchair Critic 4
    5 March 2014 at 12:53 pm

    The suit needs to be split in two because Elvis is alive. The reason he hasn’t been seen for a while is because he’s living on the moon.

  5. tinfoilhat 5
    5 March 2014 at 1:47 pm

    In relation to the defence fund as a paid up member of the Green party I expect my representatives to stand up for the rights of all NZers including women and homosexuals and respect my ability to gauge for myself the policies of other parties. Craig has a right to defend himself against defamation – I despise the man and hope his case falls over. But I also think positing this as a defence of free speech and LGBT and womens’ rights is a load of bollocks and a stain on the integrity of the party. MPs are are on far more than “middle income” so you lot can pay for it.

  6. Tanz 6
    5 March 2014 at 2:14 pm

    well, so much for free speech. Free as long as it endorses the Greens and Norman. Colin Craig has every right to have a go at Parliament, give him a break. It doesn’t belong only to the Left, it belongs to all Kiwis.

    • Tracey 6.1
      5 March 2014 at 2:20 pm

      “Colin Craig has every right to have a go at Parliament, give him a break”

      No one is stopping him from trying for parliament. Infact for someone who is not in parliament he gets an awful lot of publicity. His words are widely read and heard, he is hardly a victim of oppression.

      • lprent 6.1.1
        5 March 2014 at 2:49 pm

        I suspect that crazy colin is kind of thin-skinned about what type of attention he gets.

        • Tracey 6.1.1.1
          5 March 2014 at 2:51 pm

          I suspect Colin realises that despite the carefully (or not so carefully) constructed veneer his true self is shining through… and he needs to use his money to make it stop.

    • framu 6.2
      5 March 2014 at 2:36 pm

      show where a single person, any where on this planet has tried to stop crazy colin from speaking his mind – or retract that particular idiocy, it does you no favours

      free speech isnt a one way street is it

      why do so many people think that free speech means “I can say what i want and you have to shut up”?

      • Tracey 6.2.1
        5 March 2014 at 2:48 pm

        what he meant was

        “waaa waaaa, Colin is such a nice guy who understands who is going to hell and who isn’t, , and you are all being mean to him. Waa Waaaa I’m telling on you.”

        it’s usually people with money, or people who like people with money and think one day they will have it too, that think that.

    • Daveosaurus 6.3
      5 March 2014 at 6:11 pm

      The only infraction against free speech here is the sensitive wee sausage’s attempt to have Russel Norman silenced.

  7. TE 7
    5 March 2014 at 3:05 pm

    Oh Colin Craig is this really you
    I Love Mankind
    It’s People
    I Can’t
    Stand

  8. Todd 8
    6 March 2014 at 8:02 am

    “And on a more serious note, if you’d like to donate to” the Greens “general coffers”, more like… Look @ the waiver. It’s not for Russells defamation case. Whoops? or… Meh, we can do what we want? Typical. Let him spend his own cash, he’s well above the poverty line.

    • Murray Olsen 8.1
      7 March 2014 at 1:13 am

      Are you from the Gower School of Journalism and Auto-irrumation, Todd? I donated and read what I was donating for. It said that money not spent on the case would be used for other Green activities.

      I take it you’ll be asking for all the money you’ve donated to ACT and National back, seeing they’re all filthy rich and should be spending their own money. Pull the other one, if I ever walk close enough to your bridge for you to reach it.

  9. paul scott 9
    7 March 2014 at 7:14 pm

    I agree with you MickySavage that Colin should not be asking for donation toward a defamation case. I also agree that this is not the way Craig should go.
    The PM is correct. If Craig expects a seat given to him by NZ Nat he must take this stuff and brush it off.
    Russel Norman’s comments were typical though of his small minded vindictive, communist personality.
    The election will be a clean up Micky, Nat, NZ First, Conservative.
    Maybe then we can start to get rid of the racism so blatantly crying out for extinction.

    • Murray Olsen 9.1
      7 March 2014 at 10:15 pm

      Who did you get to read the post to you?
      What’s blatantly crying out for extinction is your small minded colonial attitude and craven obeisance to John Key. The smallest minds and most vindictive personalities in parliament are found among the National ministers, giggling their stupid selves into incontinence every time Paula, Judith, or John makes another personal schoolyard bully type attack on an opposition member. You probably see that as statesmanship, but your opinion is obviously not worth bothering with.

      • xtasy 9.1.1
        7 March 2014 at 10:24 pm

        Murray, please, do you not “realise”, we are being “undermined” by “communists” from the “green” quarter. Better clothe warmly, this in not just one single voice I hear in the most IGNORANT country I have ever been to.

        I am sorry to offend, but due to mass brainwashing and conditioning, by MSM media, that is exactly what NZ society is predominantly like.

        I wish I had never come back here, and I totally understand all those that left, and the students now facing arrests for arrears of student loans, to NEVER come back to New Zealand, this country has been turned into a brothel for the corporate and rich interests of the globe, nothing else, thanks John Fucking Key!