Key John: General Debate 
Key John: General Debate 
[Volume:633;Page:4789] 
JOHN KEY (National—Helensville) 
: 
 It is very interesting to watch a Labour Party that is in deep trouble and knows it. It is very interesting to see a Labour Party that has its back to the wall and knows it. It knows it for a couple of reasons. [ 
Interruption 
] Jill Pettis should not get stuck in the fish wire. Question time today was very interesting. We saw an example of Trevor Mallard with his head down and Michael Cullen with his head down. The Labour Party has a problem and it knows it. The problem is on two fronts actually and it is a very serious one. The problem for the Labour Party—as Mr Mallard knows—is showing up in its polling. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: No it’s not! 
JOHN KEY 
: Oh yes it is and Mr Mallard knows it. I have seen it and Mr Mallard knows it. The Labour Party’s problem is a Prime Minister who is about all the party has to hold it together. She is the only glue. She came into Parliament promising high standards. Now she is “Hele Baba and the 40 thieves”. She has Taito Phillip Field who she knows and the journalists the public and the Labour Party supporters know is guilty. Labour members know he is guilty but they cannot have an investigation because if they do the party will lose its one-seat majority. So Labour does not know what to do about that; it is just going to park that issue. 
The next thing the Labour Party knows is that it has spent $900000 of taxpayers’ money to buy an election and it did it for one reason. A week before the election on 17 September Labour held a meeting to discuss its internal polls. Pete Hodgson had to tell Labour Party members the bad news—that Labour was four points behind and was not going to win. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: No. 
JOHN KEY 
: Oh yes he did. The thing that members have to understand about the Labour Party is that Helen Clark is a political junkie and she runs Labour’s campaigns. She does not just sit around as Prime Minister; she runs Labour’s campaigns. She signs off on every ad. She told Labour members: “We are not going to lose because we are four points behind with a week to go. We will do whatever it takes.” On 14 September Mike Smith the Labour Party secretary did not know that the Labour Party was going to do whatever it takes to win so he wrote to the Chief Electoral Officer and said: “Yes we’ll be including the Labour Party pledge card in our campaign spending. They are always having it paid for by the taxpayers.” That is Labour’s second issue—its cap. 
After the election he wrote to say he was rescinding that statement. Why? Because he knew that the Labour Party had to spend the money and if it did not then it would not have won the election. So now they have a problem. They have been exposed their backs are to the wall they are not happy and they owe $900000. This is their simple problem—No. 1 they are broke. They do not have any money. They spent absolutely every dollar they could on buying that election—and every dollar the taxpayer had on buying the election as well. So the No. 1 problem is that they are broke. 
Problem No. 2 is that they cannot raise the money. They have been to Owen Glenn and he said that he would not give them any more money. And they do not have any friends in the business community so they cannot raise the money. So they have option three. Option three is that they borrow the money. There is one reason why they will not borrow the money—and Trevor Mallard knows it well. If a Labour Government borrows $900000 at its third term it will be kicked for touch at the next election. Those members will not even be able to raise the $900000 to pay back what they borrowed for the last election let alone for the next one they want to go into. So those members have turned ugly and this issue is now a diversion. 
According to the Prime Minister it does not matter. It is not inside the “beltway”. Well that is pretty interesting because that is not what the  
Dominion Post  
said this morning when it went out and asked a few people. Pip Wylie a cafe owner in Taupo stated: “The prime minister is wrong when she says the rest of New Zealand is not interested in [this issue] …”. Anne Spence a 23-year-old nurse in Greymouth stated: “We are interested. It is our money as well. As the prime minister she is supposed to care about all of us …”—I do not think so I say to Anne. The bad news is that the Prime Minister cares only about herself—Helen—and the 40 thieves whom she looks after. Jean Turnbull is 81 but she is not slow. She may be retired and living in Rangiora but she stated: “The allegations of corruption and the use of taxpayer funds on Labour’s election pledge card concern me especially [because it is our money] …”. Bernard Carroll a taxi driver from Wellington stated: “It’s taxpayers’ money and they should be accountable for every penny that they spend. I think [it is] a matter of principle …”. But best of all the award goes to Kelvin Ward. He is 74 retired and living in Stoke Nelson—a good constituent no doubt of Nick Smith—and he stated: “Yes she’s probably right in assuming people don’t care—but I don’t really care what she says anyway.”