29 April 2002

New Zealand First Leader, Rt Hon Winston Peters, is asking how, once again, the media is handling the current Prime Minister with the very softest of kid gloves, but was quite prepared to crucify a previous government on a similar issue.

“Back in 1997 Labour ran a scurrilous campaign against Aotearoa Television, which the media gleefully joined. At the end of the campaign and 3 separate investigations by the Ministry of Commerce, the Registrar of Companies and the Serious Fraud Office, it was discovered that no illegality had occurred, but Labour did not allow the facts get in the way of a good story.

“Now, even before Maori Television has made its first broadcast we have a screw-up of gigantic proportions. So how come no-one is asking the Minister of Maori Affairs or the Prime Minister any questions? Instead she is being allowed to place all blame on the employment agency.

“In the ‘world-view’ of this government it seems that that the Prime Minister is only responsible for good news, and the buck always stops at the bottom.

ENDS

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