We all know that there are two sides to a story. But in the case of the Barnaby Joyce citizenship scandal there appears to be three.First we had the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop, trying to lay blame on the Labor and Labour parties in order to shift the focus off of Barnaby Joyce and their hypocrisy. Then we had the National party also trying to blame Labour’s Chris Hipkins for daring to even ask some generalised questions about citizenship.
However a third and correct side of the story is now being uncovered.
Today, 1 News reported:
Aussie journos had answers on Barnaby Joyce's citizenship nearly two weeks before Kiwi MP's inquiries
In a bid to set the record straight about who knew what about Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's Kiwi citizenship, the New Zealand government has released an official timeline of questions it received about the issue.
It confirms Australian reporters had answers on the matter nearly two weeks before a member of New Zealand's Labour Party even inquired.
Despite this fact, Bill English and Steven Joyce used the opportunity to attack Labour.
On Tuesday, Newshub reported:
Bill English condemns Labour's Chris Hipkins in Aussie citizenship saga
Prime Minister Bill English has criticised Labour's Chris Hipkins for interfering in Australia's constitutional crisis by looking into Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's background.
How much political capital National has made from such obviously incorrect accusations is anybody's guess. It’s probably not much being that most New Zealander's know that English is a bit of a fool!
It was pretty obvious the PM was in the wrong after the Minister of Internal Affairs, Peter Dunne, also made statements on the matter that contradicted the Prime Ministers.
Mr Dunne says it was questions from Australian media, not Labour's Chris Hipkins that led to the revelation, but Mr English says it's up to MPs to make sure they don't get embroiled in the politics of another country.
"I can't remember a time when an MP has done something like that that involves the politics of another country. It's just another misjudgement about what is actually a serious issue," Mr English told reporters.
It was a misjudgement of the National led government to think they could simply keep the fact that Barnaby Joyce is also a citizen of New Zealand a secret.
But what makes this all the more ridiculous is the Australian government attacking the Labour party over something that they also must have known about.
On Wednesday, Stuff reported:
Aussie foreign minister says she won't be able to build trust with a NZ Labour government after citizenship row
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop: "Should there be a change of government, I would find it very hard to build trust with those involved in allegations designed to undermine the government of Australia".
Hopefully there will be a change of government in both countries, because at the moment National as well as the Liberal Party of Australia are both looking rather dishonest.
Bill English really needs to stop blaming Labour for everything that goes wrong in government, including when things they've tried to keep secret are revealed.
The best way to ensure the blame game comes to an end is to vote National out. Vote to change the government this election.
