Nats cynical games over Kiwibank sale

“John Key is guilty of the worst kind of cynical politics. He changes his mind depending on where the votes are before the election, then reverts back to his original position once in government,” says Jim Anderton MP for Wigram and Progressive Party leader.

He did this with his broken promises not to sell Kiwibank. In 2008, MPs like Nathan Guy won marginal seats like Otaki by signing a pledge that the National Party would not sell Kiwibank,”

“On August 7 2008 before the election, John Key refused to sign a pledge not to sell Kiwibank. Then when he could see how unpopular that was, he changed his mind and promised multiple times not to sell Kiwibank - ever - if he was elected.

“The National party needed all the votes it could get in the marginal seats, like Otaki.

“That is presumably why Cabinet Minister and National Party MP Nathan Guy did sign the pledge on behalf of the National Party not to initiate a sale of Kiwibank, and he did it in front of hundreds of local people.

“I wonder how those people feel now?”

After he signed the pledge, Nathan Guy won the Otaki seat with a majority of 1354.

“Assuming half those people had decided not to vote for National once they knew that asset sales were going to be back on the agenda (less than 700 votes), those votes probably would have gone to the Labour candidate Darren Hughes. Mr Guy would then not have won that seat.

“John Key’s policy on asset sales changed during the election, and it helped get his government elected. Now the truth is coming out. John Key will sell Kiwibank if he wins another term in government.

“‘Ever - is a short word and a short time in John Key’s world.”

“This is the kind of cynical politics that brings governments down,” says Jim Anderton.

ENDS

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