"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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