The Prime Minister has famously declared that she never lies.
That was a lie of course.
Now it is campaign season she’s dropping whoppers like there is no tomorrow.
Asked about the National’s commitment to get tough on gangs, Ardern said the best way to deal with gangs and methamphetamine in the community was to support the police. The Government had done that by adding more than 2000 police, she said.Ardern criticised the previous National government, she said that under Judith Collins – who was police minister from 2008-2011 – there was a decrease in the number of police.
As David Farrar points out, both claims are false:
Two whoppers here.
The first is they have now added on more than 2,000 Police. There are 1,260 more Police now than in October 2017. She is trying to claim every new Police recruit as “adding Police” but that is nonsensical.
Imagine a CEO who had 300 staff quit and then hired 100 new staff and claimed they had “added more than 100 staff”.
The second whopper is her claim police numbers decreased under Judith Collins. Here are the FTE sworn Police numbers from Police annual reports:
30 June 2008: 8,453
30 June 2009: 8,776
30 June 2010: 8,789
30 June 2011: 8,856
30 June 2012: 8,940
And where is Stuff’s much vaunted new fact checkers?
It’s their own reporting but the fact-checking seems to have failed. It seems The Whole Truth has already been caught short.
Meanwhile, it is now safe to say that the Prime Minister’s claim of never telling lies is well and truly busted.
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