Non story of the week

This might be the biggest beatup of the year. TV3 reports:

Labour says a promise by John Key in 2008 shows he has misled the public over job cuts in the public service.

3 News has dug out never seen before footage of Mr Key promising “no job cuts” to the Public Service Association Conference back in 2008.

In fact in a response to a question that day Mr Key argued selling assets didn’t make for a better economy.

“Nor am I hell bent on selling assets, actually in the world of making the boat go faster, actually, I don’t think selling assets actually makes the boat go faster.”

So a speech four years ago before the global economic crisis and before the surplus disappeared into a decade of deficits is seen as a “broken promise” today. Note that Labour and the PSA supplied the video the day before Key’s speech setting out change tomorrow.

The global economic crisis meant National reduced public sector jobs in the first term -just as id cancelled further tax cuts also. Is the PSA demanding National should have kept their tax cuts?

And most of all, National got re-elected in 2011 with explicit policies that there would be asset part-sales, and further cost cutting in the state sector. So how one can claim a 2011 election manifesto is trumped by a 2008 speech, I don’t know.

UPDATE: TV3 inform me that no one supplied them with the video, it was from their library archive.