From the press room
National/Labour jackup a betrayal of democracy – 2008-09-29
UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne today condemned the backroom jackup between the two old parties that will deprive the smaller parties of television airtime as 'a betrayal of MMP and democracy'.
"The Prime Minister says this election is all about trust – well, we can now see that the big parties can only be trusted to look after their own narrow interests and not the interests of the nation," he said.
Miss Clark and Mr Key have secretly agreed only to debate each other on television before the election and not be seen with the leaders of the other political parties in Parliament.
"The result is that TV3 has cravenly buckled under and cancelled its multi-leader debate, which means TV3 viewers and voters will be deprived of the opportunity to make an informed judgement of the qualities of the various aspiring leaders of the nation.
"To its credit, State-owned TVNZ says it will go ahead with its planned multi-leader debate.
"National and Labour really should accept that we are now in the era of MMP, not First Past the Post, and the voters need every opportunity they can get on our national media for the chance the make up their own minds, and not have their choices dictated by the anti-democratic actions of Clark and Key," said Mr Dunne.