Goff stokes fears of asset sales by 'arrogant' Nats

Phil Goff pushed home Labour's message against the partial sale of SOEs in Dunedin. Photo / Otago Daily Times

Labour leader Phil Goff yesterday ramped up the urgency of his message to undecided voters that a vote for National means waving goodbye to state-owned assets.

On the penultimate day of the campaign, Mr Goff spoke to voters and supporters in Christchurch about cuts to early childhood education funding, the squeeze on the low paid and beneficiaries and the need for skills training to help young New Zealanders into work.

However, the focus remained on stoking voters' fears that National's partial privatisation plan would leave New Zealand worse off over the long term.

Addressing workers at KiwiRail's Hillside Workshops in Dunedin, he again pointed to opinion polls that have consistently shown widespread public opposition to selling off almost half of all four state-owned energy companies and national flag carrier Air New Zealand.

"But we've got a National Party that's so arrogant that if they're elected, they'll be flogged off.

"A National Party that makes a decision that it's going to sell assets when 80 per cent of New Zealanders are against it can't be described in any other way," he later told reporters.

"It's arrogant, it's disregarding what most New Zealanders believe."

Mr Goff said during the final leaders' debate on Wednesday evening that Mr Key had been unable to give voters an assurance that shares in Meridian Energy, Mighty River Power, Genesis Energy and Solid Energy would not eventually end up in the hands of foreign investors.

Starting in Rotorua, Mr Goff and his candidates will today take a bus tour to bring their message to voters and supporters in the towns and along the Waikato River where many of the hydroelectric power stations owned and operated by the state-owned power companies lie.

He will campaign until midnight in order to swing as many as possible of the large number of undecided voters he needs to bridge the massive gap between Labour and National in the polls.

Yesterday he told the Herald the asset sales issue was the key.

"If we do well it will be about that."

He said Mr Key had shown he was uncomfortable talking about the policy and had relied on distractions such as the Rugby World Cup, and more recently the teapot tape to divert public attention.

The less New Zealanders thought about the issues the more the National Party was pleased during the campaign.

"I don't want New Zealanders to wake up with a hangover on Sunday morning thinking, 'My God, we're about to sell our future."'