Media statement
For immediate release
Friday, 24 August 2007

Lifting the game

UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne says it’s time for political debate to return to the issues, not the personalities.
.
"The last week has one of new lows in New Zealand politics, and I'm calling on political leaders and the media to lift their game."

Mr Dunne said the “war of sleaze” between Labour and National, typified by the ongoing attacks on Mr Key’s credibility and rumours of counter-attacks, was turning off voters in droves.

“I am not surprised there are calls being made to desist from this type of conduct, and to get on with the business of governing, but I fear they may be too late.

“Many voters already think all politicians are a waste of space and these relentless personal attacks simply confirm that.

Mr Dunne also attacked the media interest in whether MPs had been to strip clubs.

“Whether or not MPs have been to strip clubs hardly has an impact on their ability to be public representatives, and is a silly and utterly irrelevant question.

“Again, all it does is trivialise the political process.

“Those editors who insisted their journalists pursue the matter ought to hang their heads in shame.

“Not only have they insulted their readers by assuming that is the level of their interest in the political process, but they are also being hypocritical.

“Many of them have written editorials criticising the mounting personal abuse and triviality in politics, and calling for a focus on the real issues, only to have indulged in precisely the same behaviour themselves this week on the strip club issue,” he said.

Mr Dunne said that the only way to restore trust and confidence in the political process was for politicians and the media to both accept they have an equal responsibility to focus on the issues that count and to leave the trivia and the muckraking in the gutter where it belongs.

ENDS

© Scoop Media