In last night’s leaders debate Labour Leader Chris Hipkins referred to a quote without giving any explanation of its content, which was about the ‘disease of co-governance’ that is perpetuated by the Māori elite, and he said it was racist. Then, without even examining the content, National leader Christopher Luxon agreed with him that it was racist.

That is not showing experience. Any experienced person would demand to know what the context was of the quote being talked about before getting sucked in.

Our Candidate Rob Ballantyne made those comments in a speech at a Rotary candidate meeting three weeks ago in Timaru. The media (Stuff) was there, filmed it, wrote an article about the meeting, but never mentioned that so-called “outrageous, deplorable, and racist” quote in their article.

Three days ago, I warned a senior journalist Jo Moir, Labour would soon begin its dirt campaign. She reported it, and right on target last night, Hipkins began a dirt campaign against Winston Peters and New Zealand First.

These are the facts, Labour has trawled through everything me and my candidates have been saying, in this case from Ballantyne three weeks ago, used the quote in last night's TV3 leaders debate, or circus whichever you prefer, then sent it to Tova O'Brien from Stuff, whose organization originally three weeks ago thought there was nothing in it and never reported on it – but then she wrote about it in an article at 930am this morning.

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we first set out to deceive” – and politicians and media are clearly involved in this too.

If the mainstream media had been reporting my speeches that have been packing halls for the last two years, they would know that Mr. Ballantyne’s comments about co-governance and the Māori elite come exactly from my speeches, and the media has been found out now for their concerted attack to shut us out of this campaign, and in an attempt to marginalize a critical party in the 2023 election.

An honest fourth estate is vital to democracy. In the absence of it in New Zealand today, is one further reason, apart from co-governance, why our democracy is hanging by a thread.

The purpose of the 2023 election New Zealand First campaign is to fix this malignant development in our democracy – and our surge in popularity has given hundreds of thousands of voters and our Party the confidence to fix it, and we will.

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