Campaign Diary: 8 days to go

Compiled by political editor John Armstrong

It was only a matter of time before National trotted out its old campaign standby. Expect Bill English to warn about risks to investor confidence of a Labour-Alliance victory when the Treasurer speaks at a business breakfast in Auckland this morning. Jim Bolger thundered his "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" prediction of financial catastrophe at this stage of the 1996 campaign. The markets yawned. Bill English is not one for hyperbole. And he knows he'd get the same reaction. His speech will talk of "medium-term uncertainty" if Labour gets the chance to muck around with the tax system. And he'll try to shift those bleak polls by arguing that if everything's so wrong with the economy, why is the Reserve Bank forecasting 4 per cent growth?

I've been rethinking


Richard Prebble has been clarifying Act policy again. The rule seems to be that if voters in his marginal seat of Wellington Central don't like something, it won't happen. Two months ago Act arts spokeswoman Donna Awatere Huata said there was "no reason for state radio, none at all." But speaking on National Radio this week, Prebble flatly denied he would sell Radio New Zealand, telling Kim Hill that Wellington Central voters loved her and the station.

Never walk alone


Christian Heritage is claiming the first endorsement by a sporting celebity in this campaign. Soccer wizard Wynton Rufer, the coach of Auckland's Football Kingz, wants a solid Christian voice in Parliament in the new millennium.

WHAT THEY SAID

"We would like Mrs Shipley to pay another visit to Coromandel any time between now and the election." - Rod Donald considers National's anti-Green blitz has done his party a favour.


"I have obviously misinterpreted what they told me and I'm sorry for that." - National's Tony Ryall finds his anti-cannabis rhetoric backfiring after mistakenly claiming his local hospital's psychiatric ward is full of patients with drug-induced psychosis.

WHERE THEY'LL BE

Winston Peters at Mormon College graduations, Hamilton; Richard Prebble campaigning in Tauranga; Jenny Shipley is on the West Coast; Helen Clark spends the afternoon in Taupo; Jim Anderton campaigning in Wellington; Greens co-leader Rod Donald in Port Waikato electorate.