If spin was substance then the coalition government would be gold, said ACT leader Hon Richard Prebble.

“The government has made spin an art form. Nine months ago Helen Clark was asking New Zealanders to judge her government’s performance on the success of closing the gaps, and now we’re being told it is a National party policy.

“The reality is that both parties have gone down the socially destructive course of racial preference. Helen Clark’s announcement would be good news if it represented a change in policy, but in reality, it is only a change in silage. The policy direction remains the same.

“What neither Labour or National will admit is that many of their policies actually come from Winston Peters and his merry band of New Zealand First MPs, who charmingly called it ‘pork for their voters’. The ACT party has always opposed policies based on race as they are divisive and wrong no matter who they are promoted by.

“The government’s outrageous new claim is that it, and not the Australian Government, initiated the changes to the trans-tasman arrangement. This claim must test even Helen Clark’s ‘special arrangement’ with some media commentators.

“Only last week Helen Clark was publicly rubbishing any suggestion of such an agreement. She indicated New Zealand would not bow readily to the Australian Government's wishes and that New Zealand and Australia may "never fully agree" on the issue. Now the Government is claiming credit for initiating the proposal.

“If both the Prime Minister’s stories are put side by side it shows that one must be untrue, as they couldn’t possibly both be true. But it is possible that they’re both wrong,” said Hon Richard Prebble.

ENDS

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