KEY POINTS:
National leader John Key stood by Bill English's side this morning as English read out his carefully worded statement expressing regret at what he had said in a private conversation at a National Party cocktail party last Friday.
"I did not choose my words well,' English said.
"Mr English could have chosen his words better and will do so in the future,' Key echoed a little while later but without a hint of rancour.
They were talking about the sale of Kiwibank "eventually' as English had put it in the private conversation.
"I shouldn't have made the comments I made,' English said today. "National has had no discussion about Kiwibank and has no plans to sell it.'
Whether people believe him is another matter. TVNZ's Guyon Espiner captured the essence of the matter with his question along the lines of "haven't you been caught out telling the truth.'
We all know that National would like to sell Kiwibank and that if it were a longterm Government with a clear majority it probably would.
It won't now but it would like to eventually.
I don't think Key made English deliver the statement. It would have been obvious to English last night that he had not only been caught thinking out loud at the cocktail party but that he compounded the damage yesterday in an interview with TVNZ when he failed to correct the implication he believed his leader didn't understand Working for Families. This was the more potent gem from the private thoughts of Mr English that have made their way into the public arena.
So dangerous is the suggestion that Key and English are not the harmonious duo that heads Team National that Key at today's stand-up made the extraordinary admission that he had not understood Working for Families in 2005.
"Mr English's comments I actually think had some merit to them. Back in 2005 I was advocating as the finance spokesman a much more radical overhaul of Working for Families. In the last two years Bill and I have worked very closely on that issue and what we have come to recognise is that it actually is a lot more difficult to change and I think he had valid point.'
Whether people believe that he didn't understand it is another matter.
By the way, he says he understands it perfectly now.
English's Statement on secret recording
Statements of mine secretly recorded at a social function last Friday and published over the weekend have caused confusion and concern about Nationals policy on Kiwibank and Working for Families, says National Party Finance spokesman Bill English.
I did not choose my words well.
We have worked for several years to find a better way of allowing families to keep their own income.
We opted to retain the existing structure because we were not willing to create uncertainty for families under pressure. If we are elected we will work to improve the system for families without reducing entitlements.
With respect to Kiwibank, I shouldn't have made the comments I made. National has had no discussions about Kiwibank and has no plans to sell it.
Comments I made regarding the complexity of WFF have been construed as criticism of John Key. That is wrong. My repeated responses to this question yesterday reflected my determination not to widen the debate - not an attempt to criticise John Key.
I should have made it clear that I meant no such criticism and I'm making that clear today.
The transcript of the conversation between National deputy leader Bill English and a couple of National Party conference delegates at a cocktail party in Wellington last Friday:
ENGLISH: The basic point is, we spent a lot of time on this. The basic dynamics of it are - you look at it from the punters' point of view - they're saying they don't like Cullen and Clark. "They took all my freaking tax off me and they spend billions of it, and it went on Wassup! badges and websites and bullshit."
DELEGATE: Yeah.
ENGLISH: They got a bit back.
DELEGATE: Yeah.
ENGLISH: And all our work tells us they're pretty keen to keep the bit they've got. And we call them Labour-plus voters - and they're sitting there thinking, "that nice man Mr Key is pretty smart, he'll get me a bit more".
They're not saying, "That nice man Mr Key will take something off me." They're saying "he'll give me a bit more".
And the reality is if we had been the Government with the surpluses they had, we would have had something, like Working For Families, but not the same.
We would have given them quite a bit of cash back. And what happens is you go in there to try and change it. Frankly Don [Brash] and co got a bit carried away, cos they didn't understand it. If you give people money then, it is very hard.
There's a set of inevitable problems. It's like physics, right. If you push something up its gonna drop. If you give people cash, they have high marginal tax rates.
Okay, that's it. You can't get round that. Don thought he could but he couldn't. So did John [Key] actually but you can't. So the only raw choice is: fix the problem; or take money off them. And there's no way you can fix the problems without taking the money off them. So we're sitting here saying the punters are keen to keep it. They're facing a recession. The last thing we want is to spend the whole election campaign with families of four on TV saying "Mr Key's taking money off us". You can't do that.
DELEGATE: Yeah.
ENGLISH: So later on, we'll have to have a bit of a sort out. Yeah, we've gotta do something, but we can't do it now.
DELEGATE: What about something like Kiwibank?
ENGLISH: And actually, we just have one guy with a spreadsheet. And it's bloody complicated.
DELEGATE: I'm sure you've Lockwood Smith's spreadsheet.
ENGLISH: Oh yeah yeah, it is.
DELEGATE: Getting rid of Kiwibank? I mean.
ENGLISH: Well, eventually, but not now. Well, it's working. A lot of our supporters get a bit antsy about it, but it's working.
