26 October 2008 Media Statement

Investors can be confident of stable government under Labour

Foreign investors in New Zealand can be absolutely confident of on-going political stability under a re-elected Labour-led government in a fortnight, Finance Minister Michael Cullen said today.

"It is disappointing that the current leader of the National Party, John Key, was doing his level best this morning to talk up potential investor nervousness at the prospect of multi-party arrangements being formed after the election as Labour delivers stable government under MMP.

"John Key's comments on the Agenda programme do not stack up. The reality is that Labour has emerged from the last three general elections to deliver strong government because of Labour's professional working relationships with a number of other parties," Dr Cullen said.

"Mr Key is wrong to try and talk up investor concern. Why does he pretend to be so opposed to multi-party working relationships when the reality is that if John Key himself is to have any chance of becoming Prime Minister in this country then his National Party too would also need to form working coalition relationships with Roger Douglas's ACT Party, the Maori Party and UnitedFuture parties," Dr Cullen said.

On the Agenda programme today John Key re-iterated that the National Party wants to undermine all Kiwis' future entitlement to New Zealand Superannuation by re-affirming his party's desire to politically direct the currently operationally independent Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation how to allocate their investment portfolio. However, John Key was unable to provide a single, practical and current example of why the National Party will direct the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation to bend to politicians' will.

"The only other interesting insight into John Key provided by the Agenda programme today is the revelation that Mr Key's strong opposition to a number of government initiatives over the past few years was not based on any principles but was purely opposition for opposition's sake," Dr Cullen said.

Note to Editors: In the 1999-2002 Parliament, Labour formed a minority coalition with the Alliance (which included NewLabour, Democrat and Mana Motuhake MPs) and strong working relationships with the Greens and the NZ First Party. In the 2002-2005 and 2005-2008 Parliaments, the minority Labour-Progressive coalition governments delivered strong government by developing professional working relationships with other parties including the Greens, NZ First and United Future, while strong majorities were developed around individual government policy initiatives including some or all of these parties, plus the Maori Party.

ENDS

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