KEY POINTS:
National leader John Key says he'll "be buggered" if he is going to sell New Zealanders down the river with Roger Douglas' radical right wing agenda.
He was pressured into holding a press conference at Parliament this afternoon to distance himself from the former Labour Finance Minister and Act founder whose decision to stand for Act has raised the possibility of Douglas in a National-led Government.
Mr Key said National was running a moderate and pragmatic agenda.
"We are not going to be held hostage running a radical right-wing agenda. That is not why I came into politics. It is not what I am campaigning for. It is not what I stand for.
"And I'll be buggered if I am going to go out there and a policy agenda which is moderate, considered and pragmatic and then turn around and try and sell New Zealanders down the river. I am not doing that."
Mr Key said the promotion by Act leader Rodney Hide of Sir Roger as a cabinet prospect was "unhelpful'."
"I understand why they are doing it but let's get real. They are polling 0.7 per cent. There is no room for any equivocation. We are running a moderate, pragmatic sensible centre-right Government."
Sir Roger himself held a press conference at Parliament this morning and among the policies he was promoting was a plan to rent out hospital wards to doctors to practise privately; cutting Government spending by by between $3 billion and $5 billion; axing Working for Families; and promoting vouchers for education.
He said he would be keen to return to the cabinet if he had the chance.
He criticised finance Minister Michael Cullen as one of the poorer finance ministers in the past 50 years.
Dr Cullen said that coming from Sir Roger, the comments were flattering.
"Just when everybody thought it might be safe to vote National out of the box, like something out of an old horror film, comes Roger Douglas.
"We all know what that means - flogging off the schools, flogging off the hospitals and cutting benefits and everything else that Roger wanted to do and Ruth Richardson did and he did in part."
