PM confident Kiwis will back asset sales

Prime Minister John Key says National will proudly campaign on its asset sale plan at the election.

His comments over the weekend come as a poll shows support for the party dipped slightly after the budget, which outlined the "mixed-ownership model" plan.

The One News Colmar Brunton Poll last night put support for National at 52 percent, down from 54 percent last month, while Labour remained unchanged on 34 percent.

The mixed ownership model would involve sales over three to five years with the Government retaining a 51 percent share in Mighty River, Meridian, Genesis and Solid Energy, and reducing its 75 percent holding in Air New Zealand.

Mr Key yesterday told the National Party's northern region conference that those companies would do even better under the mixed-ownership model.

"The mixed-ownership model is a policy National will be proud to campaign on at this election. I'm confident New Zealanders will back this policy," he said.

Mr Key today said surveys that showed people were opposed to asset sales depended on people's understanding of what the Government was trying to do.

"If you go back to the 1980s where Labour sold off a lot of assets, and then we did in the early '90s, it was a very different deal. They were trade sales, so we picked up that asset, we sold it as a chunk often to a foreigner overseas," he told TV One's Breakfast this morning.

"That's not what we're proposing ... We're saying that the shares would be offered to Kiwi mums and dads first, we're saying that that money will be used to buy other assets to build up the assets that New Zealand needs, and we say we think that's a better investment alternative than a failed finance company. So it's a different proposition."

Yesterday's One News poll showed the ACT Party had made a slight gain since Don Brash ousted Rodney Hide as leader in late April, with support for the party going up 1.4 percentage points to 2.5 percent.

However, that was still below the 5 percent threshold the party would need to pass to get into Parliament without winning an electorate seat.

Mr Key this morning said he took the view that voters did not want extremes.

"There'll be a place in politics to the extreme right and the extreme left, there always is and it's good for a few percent. But I think there's a vast difference between being the leader of the National Party and being the leader of a small right-wing party," he said.

"We are unashamedly a moderate centre-right Government and a moderate centre-right party."

The poll found support for the Green and Maori parties remained unchanged at 6 percent and 1.4 percent respectively, while support for New Zealand First dropped from 2.7 percent to 1.6 percent.

Hone Harawira's Mana Party got 0.9 percent, in the first time support for the new party has been polled by One News.

John Key dipped as preferred prime minister, with support dropping from 55 percent to 53 percent, while Labour leader Phil Goff's support fell from 11 percent to 8 percent.

Dr Brash saw his popularity increase, from 0.1 percent to 0.6 percent.

The poll of 1018 eligible voters, which took place from May 21-25, had a 3.1 percent margin of error.