KEY POINTS:
National leader John Key yesterday drew heavily on his own poor but secure childhood to contrast it with an "underclass" in New Zealand he believes is sliding into social decay.
Mr Key said that while many children in the state housing area in which he grew up had done well, many people these days were being left behind and felt locked out of everyday life.
He described a street in Auckland, McGehan Close in Owairaka, which he said was terrorised by youth gangs and where two young people had killed themselves in one week last year and another two had tried.
There were other places around New Zealand like that, where families had been jobless for more than a generation, had been destroyed by addiction to P and alcohol, where there was nothing to read other than a pizza flyer and who sent their kids to school with empty stomachs and lunch boxes.
"An empty stomach and an empty lunchbox set kids up for an empty life," he said in his widely awaited "state of the nation" address at the Burnside Rugby Club in Christchurch.
"We are seeing a dangerous drift to social and economic exclusion," he told about 200 party members in Burnside, where he grew up.
Before the speech, he said on Newstalk ZB that the street in which 10-year-old Charlene Makaza was killed this year was the same one on which he grew up.
Contrasting today's horror stories with his own upbringing nearby, he said his mother, who received the widow's benefit and was a cleaner, had given him love, guidance and self-belief.
He said he remembered how it felt to "peer in the windows of homes that were materially better than my own, looking at kids with toys better than mine, families with both a mum and a dad, and homes where the fridge was full and the car was in the garage".
But it had not made him bitter or jealous; it made him determined to create a better life for his family. Now he wanted the same for New Zealand.
But he said that being born into a struggling household was "not a life sentence" and that "being poor needn't rob you of hope. We have to do better because, left unchecked, the problems of a growing underclass affect us all."
Dealing with "our growing underclass" would be a priority for National in Opposition and Government.
Mr Key, who was supported by 22 of his 48 MPs, also drew heavily on the deaths and violence of recent months including the refusal of posties to deliver mail in some parts of Hamilton because they considered it was too dangerous.
"We should not be afraid to drive down certain streets, send ambulance officers into certain houses and take our kids to certain schools. We must not be afraid, because to give in to such behaviour is to accept it."
He also referred to the murder of 77-year-old North Shore woman Doreen Reed, the tragedy surrounding the parole of Graeme Burton, and the bashing of Porirua dairy owner Lee Dao Hung.
The speech did not contain new policy. He suggested that future policy would lean to a greater role for existing agencies such as City Missions and the Salvation Army to tackle social problems. He also wanted to see a greater role for businesses involvement in schools and for ways to ensure that poorer children participated in sport.
He said "the Kiwi way", a term he repeatedly used, was one that gave a fair go for all and he said New Zealanders had believed in and cherished "an egalitarian society".
"We think no one is born superior to anyone else and that everybody deserves a fair crack in life."
The speech was Mr Key's fourth major speech since becoming leader in November, the others being his first speech on the North Shore, the adjournment debate speech when Parliament rose for Christmas, and his appearance at Ratana last week.
Former deputy leader Gerry Brownlee described it as a "different" speech for a National Party leader but one that was well overdue.
RIVAL LEADERS GIVE KEY'S SPEECH MIXED REVIEWS
Prime Minister Helen Clark
It is best summed up under the label softer words, same old message and policy ... a lot of slogans but a strange time to be making a speech about an emerging underclass when you could say the underclass was demonstrably diminishing in size.
Education Minister Steve Maharey
Mr Key might like to know that in Burnside, where he gave his speech, unemployment has fallen by around 90 per cent in the last seven years.
Green MP Sue Bradford
Earlier this month, John Key said Dr Brash's $2355-a-week MP's salary over the summer was "nickel and dime stuff". I question whether a man who thinks [that] can really understand the realities of, or the solutions to, the problems of people who are carrying the load, for all of us, of the 1980s and 1990s reforms.
United Future Leader Peter Dunne
It almost looks as though Mr Key and Labour are trying to outdo each other talking about the less well-off, while middle New Zealand is left to fend for itself, knowing whatever happens it will be called on to pay the bill.
Act Leader Rodney Hide
Every New Zealander is concerned about those missing out, but what we need are new ideas.
Christchurch City Missioner Michael Gorman
He sounded very sincere. Whatever he said, every thoughtful and caring New Zealander would agree about the kind of New Zealand we want. The basic aim of bringing back people from the margins of society is great.
