Key called 'Slippery John' after he falters on policy

Labour is dubbing the National Party leader "Slippery John" after John Key stumbled on crucial policies for the second time in as many days.

Key was yesterday forced to admit he had got his party's Treaty of Waitangi settlement policy wrong after he said on Breakfast television that National had no deadline for settling claims.

Finance Minister Michael Cullen's office promptly produced transcripts of previous statements by Key putting a deadline on claims of 2014.

National went into the last election promising to end all treaty settlements by 2010, but Key pushed that out after becoming leader, saying he wanted the issue dealt with at the same time as a review of the Maori parliamentary seats. It is National policy to abolish the seats.

But on TV yesterday, Key said National had a timeline for lodging claims, not settling them.

Late yesterday, Key admitted he had got his party's policy wrong, which he put down to "attempting to distinguish between our current position and the formal policy document that will follow later this year".

"Our goal is to settle all historic treaty claims by 2014," he said.

Key has also been forced to clarify National's position on the sale of Auckland International Airport.

Key yesterday pledged to repeal the Government's New Zealand-control test on the sale of strategic assets on sensitive land, but only after prevaricating on National's position for 36 hours.

On Tuesday, Key was unconvincing on the sale of the airport, refusing to say whether National would allow the sale to proceed.

"Well, we just need to look and see exactly what it is they are doing," he said on Tuesday.

"When it comes to strategic assets in terms of majority ownership, you know, there is a completely different test from a minority ownership and we need to understand what that means."

Yesterday, Key initially dodged questions on the sale before telling reporters that National would repeal the New Zealand-control test. That means National would be likely to let the sale of a stake in the airport to a Canadian pension fund proceed.

Key was absent from Parliament's Question Time, but this did not stop Labour organising its MPs for a fresh attack, with each rising to call him "Slippery John" and detail a list of areas on which he had prevaricated.

"For the second day we've got John Key slipping and sliding all over the place. He cannot get a story straight from one moment to the next," Cullen said.

"This is a man who might get rung up for a major decision to be made about a major issue, under pressure. What does he do? Go and talk to his PR consultants about what he should say?

"He's become the Mitt Romney of New Zealand politics without the consistency. Has he got a single firm principle or policy other than the fact that he wants to be prime minister because he thinks he is born to be prime minister?"

Key said it was Labour that was changing its mind on the airport sale at the last minute.

"They're trying to portray National as somehow pro-asset sales," he said.

"We don't think majority control of a strategic asset should pass to foreign ownership, but we're not opposed to a minority stake - and that's been the Government's position as well until they got 19 points behind in the polls."