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Inaccurate incorrect quote corrected by Herald on Sunday

Sunday 18 April 2010, 2:07PM

By North Shore City Council

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AUCKLAND

The Herald on Sunday has corrected on its on-line website an inaccurate incorrect quote attributed to me which they printed in today's Herald on Sunday, says Mayor Andrew Williams.

"They have confirmed that this was paraphrased from an interview with one of my councillors but the quotation was inaccurate." says the Mayor.

I did not state "Two people were crucified at Easter - and one of them is me." My email, in a string of fairly innocuous lighthearted emails amongst a few councillors, read "Yes two blokes got cru ci fied this week…and both will most cer tainly rise from the dead to come back to haunt a few people!!"

"This was in context in a week in early April where certain political opponents and 'Sunday tabloid media' had launched vicious attacks on me, and where I was having to defend a number of sensational accusations which were highly exagerated, misleading and in some instances plainly false."

"Radio promotion ads today for the Herald on Sunday newspaper which stated the same incorrect quotation have also been withdrawn, and I thank those concerned at the paper and radio stations concerned who have corrected this inaccuracy. It is heartening to deal with some very responsible media people who recognise an error when it has been made, and they have pulled the ads."

"This latest attempt to discredit me, as a result of an unknown person distributing unlawfully accessed email files from a councillor's workroom computer, is yet another in the string of politically motivated actions that have been undertaken against me over the past year during the volatile Auckland super city debate. It is a sad reflection on the state on politics in New Zealand that some political opponents and tabloid media will stoop to such depths." says Mayor Williams.

"But, as I have said a number of times in recent months, the insidious actions of some will not deter me from my work, my questioning aspects of the restructuring of Auckland, and my focus on what is best for the democracy of the North Shore, Auckland and New Zealand".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10639124