Gerry Brownlee

National MP for Ilam

29 May 2000

King's 'smoking ban' victim of gangland execution

Annette King's plan for a smoking ban in pubs has become the latest victim of the gangland-style war which has broken out between the coalition partners, says National MP Gerry Brownlee.

"Last week Helen Clark's mob shot down Alliance minister Matt Robson's plans for hot-and-cold running sex in the nation's prisons," Mr Brownlee says.

"Now, in an obvious act of retribution, Jim Anderton has 'rubbed out' Annette King's plan to ban smoking in bars.

Mr Anderton effectively admitted revenge was the motive for blocking that idea when he said on Radio Pacific this morning: 'This was an announcement by a minister who said that she favoured doing it this way. Well, the Alliance wasn't consulted on that. It wasn't a government policy.'

"That's an almost word-for-word repeat of the explanation Helen Clark gave last week for killing off Matt Robson's bonking-behind-bars idea," Gerry Brownlee says.

"From the public's point of view it makes it very hard to believe anything Cabinet Ministers say - since many of their announcements get shot down by their colleagues the day after they're made.

"Labour and Alliance ministers seem to suffer from a political version of Tourettes Syndrome - which sees them walking around public places randomly shouting out ideas for radical social reform, without consulting their colleagues.

"They should learn that in their line of work 'loose-lips syndrome' can leave their credibility 'sleeping with the fishes'," Mr Brownlee says.

Ends

© Scoop Media