Labour Leader
Helen Clark said today that the Prime Minister's speech to
the National Party conference had failed to live up to the
expectations created by her spin doctors that she would
relaunch her party by giving the speech of her life.
"This
tired and defensive speech was not an election winner,"
Helen Clark said.
"Its only proposed new initiatives were
those which have already failed in the current term of
Parliament - attacks on the Holidays Act, abolition of the
Employment Court, a reduction in rights for workers, and
roading reform.
"Those moves aside, National promises more
of the "business as usual", which has produced economic and
social failure.
"There were no signs of flesh on the bones
of Max Bradford's rhetoric that hands-off policies have
failed. Nor are there likely to be.
"The Prime Minister
needed to produce in this speech a vision for New Zealand
and a clear set of policies to achieve it. She did neither.
Her last chance for a relaunch has been squandered," Helen
Clark
said.
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