by Rob Hosking

The country was treated, earlier in the year, to the sight of a group of Cabinet ministers singing a ditty they had made up about National leader John Key.

To the tune of Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler it informed a breathless nation that, “You gotta know you can’t trust him.”

There was also more to sing: the ditty was one of a number – some say six, some say eight – the ministers had worked up to delight grateful voters.
Whether this was appropriate work for supposedly hard-pressed Cabinet ministers is not for us to judge. It is for you to judge, dear readers. We would only note that when Helen Clark says her ministers are “conscientious and hard-working” you will notice she never says what they are actually working on.

It has become clear though, over the past 48 hours, that the reason those ministers had devoted to much time to making up songs about Key is the whole “key is a gambler” is the centrepiece of Labour’s campaign message.

Finance Minister Michael Cullen has been pushing that theme exhaustively over the past couple of days.

"Mr Key has put forward his Merrill Lynch credentials as an important part of his narrative his story if you like – 'here I am, I have this international experience as a Merrill Lynch person.' Well that doesn't look such a good qualification any longer for running the New Zealand economy...because Merrill Lynch has just gone down,” Cullen said.

At the time it looked like the kind of cheap debating point which might make the Labour backbenches giggle during a Wednesday afternoon general debate in the House.

But the finance minister has returned to the point since and it now looks as though this is a main campaign theme.

Key has – wisely – just laughed the comments off. There is a difference, in politics, between delivering a serious message and cheap debating points. The latter can be satisfying for the deliverer, but they only appeal to those already on your side.

The comments have given Key a chance to look above this sort of thing.

It is an indication of how much Labour has slipped that it’s best debater no longer seems able to tell the difference.