Talking Northland And Making up the Facts
New Zealand First has a question to ask The Nation, the state funded so-called current affairs programme on TV3?
“Why ask questions that are not based on facts, and instead are loaded with nonsensical statements,” says New Zealand
First Leader and Northland MP Rt Hon Winston Peters.
“Today The Nation asked both Labour and National if they would commit to one billion dollars for Northport.
“First, no one is asking for a billion dollars for Northport? So, what was the question about?
“Please don’t tell us you got the figure and idea from the schoolboys at the so-called Taxpayers’ Union, the
organisation of wealthy individuals hiding behind a feel good title, when their sole purpose is to maintain the power of
the elite.
“If The Nation thought they were talking about the rail link then they used a highly inflated sum as opposed to a weighted assessment
from experienced analysts.
“Their economic assessment was about as accurate as the assessment by the Labour Party of the costs it would impose with
a water tax on production and food and National’s Finance Minister Steven Joyce writing cheques he can’t pay.
“When the head of Mainfreight, a leading Australasian transport company, says a proposal for the rail link is a no
brainier, why is The Nation attempting to pour doubts on it by attributing such a ridiculous sum to the cost?
“All the question achieved was to show that neither National’s Steven Joyce nor Labour’s Finance Spokesperson Grant
Robertson is prepared to commit anything of substance to Northland.
“We knew that - that image is four decades of neglect of Northland.”
ENDS