Labour still confident
November's general election is still within Labour's grasp, leader Phil Goff said this afternoon, despite the fact polls show the party is only supported by about one third of voters.
November's general election is still within Labour's grasp, leader Phil Goff said this afternoon, despite the fact polls show the party is only supported by about one third of voters.
Labour leader Phil Goff said that level of support meant it was not that far away from a position where it could potentially form a government.
He said Labour was consistently polling at around 34%, which he acknowledged “was not good enough yet.”
However, if it could build another 5% or 6% of support on top of that, Mr Goff said it would be able to lead a coalition government.
The government's planned asset sales were its Achilles heel in the run-up to the election, he said.
Although the sales would provide the government with a payoff of between $5 and $7 billion, which the it has said would be used to repay debt and reinvest in other areas, Mr Goff said that was only a short-term gain.
“In the long term you've lost your assets and their dividend stream.”
At today's rate, that amounted to a loss of $700 million worth of dividends over 10 years, he said.
“It doesn't make sense.”
Colin Williscroft
Mon, 30 May 2011
Mon, 30 May 2011
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Labour still confident
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