Young Labour seeks apology for John Key’s defamatory comments

Young Labour is calling for John Key to apologise after he labeled Young Labour liars and alleged they had organized a smear campaign against him on the day of his defence policy release. John Key stated on Dunedin Radio on Friday that Young Labour had put out a press release saying he would remove the fee maxima on tertiary fees. The comments however appear to have originated from press releases issued by several student’s associations.

“I am appalled that John Key would use personal insults to attack Young Labour when any quick check of basic facts would find his allegations are completely incorrect” said Young Labour President Meg Bates. “Young Labour has not released any such press statement and John Key’s accusations are offensive. He accuses Young Labour of trying to upset his defence policy release, but as far as we can see John Key manages to upset his policy announcements all by himself.”

The Young Labour President understands Key has repeated his allegations elsewhere and she requests he stops immediately and publicly apologises for his comments. “It is really disappointing to see a man who aspires to lead exploiting his media profile to perpetrate fallacies about a hard working group of young volunteers. We are all volunteers, juggling study and work - to be smeared by him with false allegations is just unfair. If Key can not get basic details right how could he ever lead New Zealand?”

“We don’t need to waste our time making things up about Key’s policies. As the admissions of National on asset sales, removal of doctors’ fee caps and the “finished” war on Iraq show, there is plenty to alert New Zealanders to without doing what Key has accused us of.”

ENDS

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