John Key spoke some appalling misrepresentations of facts in the House today, rewriting history in a way that seems to suit “Crazy” Colin Craig’s possible coalition bottom lines.
In Question Time Key said this in response to questions about the up-coming referendum on Asset Sales:
Hon David Cunliffe: Why is the Prime Minister so arrogantly continuing his asset sales when the sales to date have transferred ownership of those assets from 100 percent of New Zealanders to just 2 percent, and does this not show that Kiwi mums and dads, far from being at the front of the queue, are not near the queue at all?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Firstly, the member is wrong—51 percent of the companies is owned by all New Zealanders. Secondly, my understanding is that the Superannuation Fund, ACC, and other major funds are shareholders of those companies, and they hold those shares on behalf of all New Zealanders. There is a huge number of KiwiSaver accounts. The member may remember those. They were set up under a Labour Government. They are owned by a wide range of New Zealanders. But here is an interesting one: there has been a number of referendums in recent times. One of them, for instance, was in relation to smacking, which was supported by 87.4 percent of New Zealanders. That was a policy pushed under a Labour Government and it “arrogantly” rejected it.
[…]
Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The election campaign in 2011 was dominated by this issue of the mixed-ownership model. National won that election with a comprehensive majority in any terms. This Parliament has faced on numerous occasions referendums for which there has been significant public opposition, and we do not even know, by the way, what the result of this referendum will be. But the most recent one was when 87.4 percent of New Zealanders opposed the smacking legislation. That was a policy pushed by Helen Clark, the Greens, and a Labour Government, and all that we can say is that Labour arrogantly ignored it. So when Labour members are in Government they just ignore things, and when they are in Opposition they roar like little tigers or lions, or whatever else it is over there that they do.
My bold. Well, as gobsmacked commented, the opposition were slow to expose this out and out lie by John Key, however, Cunliffe finally got to it in the General Debate that followed Question Time.
Cunliffe on Key’s “brain fades” in today’s Question Time:
Because the smacking referendum was held in 2009 and the result was ignored by his government. He struck the deal with Helen Clark that resulted in the Bill being passed. And he and the entire National Caucus voted for it.
A march against John Key’s decision to ignore the referendum was sponsored to the tune of $450,000 by, guess who? Crazy Colin Craig.
And this is the same Colin Craig, who said last night on 3 News, in relation to a possible future coalition with a National-led government,
changing the anti-smacking laws is “a priority for so many New Zealanders” – which he said makes it his priority.
So, while Key said yesterday:
Take tearing up the anti-smacking law. The Prime Minister helped settle this, and he doesn’t want to go back.
“[It] wouldn’t be a top priority issue for a 2014 National government,” he said. “I would imagine that Colin Craig actually would have much better issues that he’s worried about.”
But today, Key seems to have begun rewriting history in order to be on the same page as Crazy Colin.
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