National hit by more secret recordings

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The National Party has been hit by more damaging recordings of private conversations which the Government can use to claim it has a hidden agenda.

As it tried today to shut down the controversy over deputy leader Bill English's secretly taped comments about selling Kiwibank, TV3 News broadcast remarks by senior MP Lockwood Smith.

"There's some bloody dead fish you have to swallow. . .to get into government to do the kinds of things you want to do," Smith said when he was talking privately to delegates at National's conference on Friday night.

"Once we have gained the confidence of the people, we've got more chance of doing more things."

Smith said if National tried to do everything differently it would "scare the horses" and under MMP it would be very hard to win an election.

"We may be able to do some things we believe we need to do, perhaps go through a discussion document process. . .you wouldn't be able to do them straight off."

Before TV3 broadcast those comments, Mr English had to front up and tell the media National had no plans to sell Kiwibank.

"It's not my view. It's not my private view. I simply used loose language – I made a statement I shouldn't have," he said.

Party leader John Key, who spoke to reporters with Mr English at his side in a show of unity, said he did not see any circumstances in which Kiwibank would be sold.

"We would never make a change to that decision without a mandate," he said.

Mr Key may find it more difficult to deal with Dr Smith's remarks because they indicate a belief within the party that it is better not to reveal all its intentions ahead of the election.

Prime Minister Helen Clark and her deputy Michael Cullen have been saying Mr English's comments were evidence of that, and now they have more ammunition.

In Parliament today Cabinet Minister Trevor Mallard said it was clear what was happening.

"The secret agenda of the National Party is slowly unravelling," he said, calling on its MPs to "come clean" about their real intentions.

Miss Clark said she did not believe Mr English's retraction, and Dr Cullen said the deputy leader was driving policy while Mr Key was the smiling front man.

Dr Cullen said tonight the latest revelations presented Mr Key with two options.

"He could admit that he has no intention of sticking to the centrist ‘Labour-plus' agenda he is promising New Zealanders.

"Or he can admit that the senior MPs around him are very happy to use him to gain power but have no intention of letting him run the show if they are elected."

TV3 News reported Mr Key as saying he did not think there was anything sinister in what Smith had said.

- NZPA