John Key MP
National Party Leader

16 February 2007

Labour's grand coalition of the unwilling

National Party Leader John Key says the unfolding saga of Taito Phillip Field leaves Helen Clark reliant on a "grand coalition of the unwilling" as it attempts to progress an extremely light political agenda in 2007.

"No matter how Miss Clark tries to paint it, her Labour Government now faces the prospect of being held to ransom by potentially unreliable political allies, as each attempts to extract their pound of flesh from the new dynamic."

Mr Key says the Government is now made up of Labour, the Progressives, United Future, New Zealand First, the Greens and the independent Mr Field.

"With four parties inside the tent, the Greens on the outside, and the angry Mr Field sitting on the backbenches, Helen Clark will be forced to do a head count on almost every issue.

"This is not a recipe for a go-forward agenda, this is a recipe for paralysis born out of Labour's cynical survival instinct."

Though Mr Field has offered his proxy vote to Labour, Helen Clark will now have to decide whether it is morally right for her to continue to rely on the vote of an MP she has described as unethical and immoral.

"In her Opposition days, Helen Clark once said 'clinging on to power is all that motivates this desperate and dangerous Government now'. Her own words are coming back to haunt her."

ENDS

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