"The rowdy reception
Coromandel people gave Jenny Shipley last night in her first
public meeting of the election campaign shows why her
campaign is hermetically sealed," says Labour campaign
spokesperson Pete Hodgson.
"Mrs Shipley doesn't do public
meetings because the public can't stand her. They don't like
her talking down to them on television and they like it even
less when she does it in person.
"Mrs Shipley's minders
keep her away from the public because they don't want to
deal with the hostility she generates wherever she goes.
She's out of touch because she never meets ordinary New
Zealanders. Ordinary New Zealanders don't like her because
she's out of touch.
"The Prime Minister is always talking
about 'real New Zealanders', yet she knows nothing about
them. She spends her days surrounded by National Party
toadies and yes-men who agree with everything she says and
tell her what she wants to hear. She probably thinks she is
going to win the election.
"Labour leader Helen Clark is
out with the public all the time. Only yesterday she was at
the Mangere town centre in a crowd of hundreds. No one
lunged at her, heckled her or abused her. She will do
another public meeting tonight.
"Helen Clark is happy to
meet New Zealanders because the public are happy to meet
her. She talks with people, not at them, and she listens to
what they say. That's why she's a winner and Jenny Shipley
is
not."
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