KEY POINTS:
2.35: I can play referee - Dunne
United Future leader Peter Dunne has played the "sensible" card, saying only his party can moderate ACT or the Greens' influence over the next government.
The Greens yesterday ruled out supporting a National-led government - setting up a Labour-Greens, National-ACT left-right split.
Mr Dunne said today only United Future could provide a "sensible moderating influence" on either of those possible combinations.
2.15pm: "Er - no thanks, Winston"
National has responded with a firm "no" to New Zealand First's proposal to float Kiwibank on the stock exchange.
(See earlier update from 10.20am today.)
National Leader John Key says National will not sell Kiwibank. He says asset sales are off National's agenda until 2011.
Mr Key also believes it would be impractical to adopt Mr Peters' other proposal, that Kiwibank pick up all the government's business, as he does not know if it has the capability to do that.
12.30pm: Investment in R & D
Prime Minister Helen Clark has announced a $25 million 10-year grant for a "New Zealand Innovation Centre" in Auckland.
It's to be a partnership between Auckland University and the Auckland City Council.
Speaking at the University's Tamaki campus, she said the aim of the centre was to support the growth of companies driven by research and development.
"Firms will benefit from access to the expertise and services available at the centre regardless of their stage in the business cycle," she said.
10.35am: Out of the mouths of children ...
Online reporter Edward Gay discovered that Prime Minister Helen Clark has been at Owairaka Primary School in Auckland's Mt Albert this morning, where she took questions from schoolchildren aged 9 and 10.
She was asked a wide range of detailed questions [click to view video] by the students, from education to public transport and even Working for Families.
10.20am (and updated at 11.15am): Money in the bank
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters' bombshell last night that he likes the idea of privatising Kiwibank (and limiting shareholding to New Zealanders) has drawn rapid response this morning.
Greens co-leader Russel Norman was quick to reject the proposal.
"Winston Peters seems to have lost his way in the middle of the economic crisis," he said.
"In the midst of a financial meltdown, having a bank owned by the Government has provided much needed stability to the New Zealand banking system. The fact that KiwiBank only borrows within New Zealand and is Government-owned has made it one of New Zealand's most reliable financial institutions," said Dr Norman.
Progressives leader Jim Anderton scoffed at the notion.
He said a similar plan - established when Mr Peters was Treasurer in the National-NZ First coalition in the 1990s - to restrict share ownership to New Zealanders in the float of Auckland Airport had failed.
"It went offshore as fast as a wide-bodied jet."
Anderton described Peters as a "serial asset seller".
And the authors of finance and banking website interest.co.nz are also unimpressed.
"I think there may be some practical and financial problems with separating Kiwibank from NZ Post", writes the site's editor Bernard Hickey.
"Currently Kiwibank uses NZ Post branches and also provides some bill payments services to NZ Post. For that service Kiwibank received NZ$41.39 million from NZ Post last year, which some argue is a subsidy that inflates Kiwibank's profit, which was NZ$36.82 million last year.
"Kiwibank probably wouldn't be profitable if it was cut loose from NZ Post", concludes Hickey.
9.45am: Ray of hope for diabetics
Health Minister David Cunliffe has approved a clinical trial involving the transplantation of pig cells into humans.
Biotech entrepreneur Living Cell Technologies Ltd (LCT) wants to transfer cells from the pancreas of pigs to produce insulin in type-1 diabetes sufferers in a process known as xenotransplantation.
The trial would be conducted at Middlemore Hospital, in South Auckland.
The technology is regarded as highly controversial but Cunliffe said the benefits outweighted the risks and he gave the trial the green light.
"Xenotransplantation had huge potential for diabetes sufferers", he said.
9.15am: Express delivery
Our reporter Claire Trevett is on the election trail with National leader John Key in Waikato this morning.
Speaking at Te Rapa, Key pledges that his party will complete the Waikato Expressway within 10 years at a cost of an additional $790m.
The purpose of the expressway is to meet the ever-increasing traffic demands of the district in the future and trim the travel times between the centres of Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga.
He added that it wouldn't be tolled, but instead be paid for through an infrastructure borrowing programme.
- NZHERALD STAFF, with NZPA and NEWSTALK ZB
