The dangers of insufficient proof-reading were laid bare for Labour MP Shane Jones today when he proclaimed himself dishonest in a press release.
In a media statement criticising National's reaction to Labour's transport policy, Mr Jones accused the party's campaign chairman Steven Joyce of lying about what the cost of funding Auckland's rail link would be.
However, the point was somewhat lost at paragraph seven when he replaced Mr Joyce's name with his own.
"Mr Jones's dishonesty on the rail link is not occurring in isolation, however,'' the statement read.
His mistake was a source of amusement for many, particularly bloggers who quickly reported the error.
Mr Jones made light of the incident, releasing a second statement this afternoon thanking the many people who picked up the mistake.
"While Jones and Joyce are similar names alphabetically, and in terms of the number of letters, their views on politics and sticking to the facts are clearly poles apart,'' the statement read.
• A mix-up of Pacific Islands in a speech by New Zealand First leader Winston Peters today left his audience a little confused.
Speaking about the charges New Zealand cellphone users faced, Mr Peters compared the costs to "people with bones in their noses in the highlands of Fiji'' who had 70 per cent lower rates.
Speech notes cleared up that he had meant to say Papua New Guinea.
• Act Party leader Don Brash was caught on camera dishing out a healthy dose of criticism to a journalist.
TV3's Patrick Gower was trying to speak to Dr Brash about superannuation at a Business New Zealand election conference in Wellington this morning, but the leader was not keen to comment.
With the cameras still rolling, Dr Brash called Gower a "deceitful bastard'', and accused the channel of setting up interviews and changing the subject on him.
Gower said it was not clear what the comment was specifically in reference to, and that it came out of the blue.
