Clark pulls plug on leaflets plan

NEW ZEALAND HERALD: Prime Minister Helen Clark has put the kybosh on Labour Party activists distributing pamphlets from Government departments for the likes of KiwiSaver and Working for Families.

And she has publicly admonished her party president for backing it.

"This was a not-so-bright idea which came off the floor at a [Labour congress] workshop, I understand," Helen Clark said yesterday.

"The not-so-bright idea has been thrown off the ninth floor of the Beehive.

"I have said that under no circumstances should canvassers be handing out Government leaflets. They are not campaign material."

The idea was suggested in a campaign strategy workshop run by party president Mike Williams at the Labour congress in Wellington.

It was recorded in detailed notes taken during the session, and later obtained by the Herald.

The notes included the advice, "Hand out pamphlets from Winz and IRD such as Working for Families, KiwiSaver, and say to people National voted against this."

One News claimed last night that Mr Williams endorsed it in the workshop as a "damned good idea".

But Helen Clark said it had shown "poor judgment because it was not campaign material".

"As Mike Williams said in his speech on Friday night, no one dies wondering what I think about things, and he was the beneficiary of such advice again this morning."

Asked if Mr Williams had become a liability, she said: "He is one of my oldest friends and a very diligent worker for the party, but he doesn't always get things right."

Mr Williams offered his resignation this year amid negative publicity over disclosure of an interest-free loan to the party by expatriate business magnate Owen Glenn.

Helen Clark said she had kept informational brochures in her office for constituents since she had been in Parliament, no matter what Government was in power, and all MPs should do the same.

The idea of dishing out departmental literature while campaigning was attacked by National as an example of Labour's strategy to shut down critics through the Electoral Finance Act and use the resources of the Government to publicise its own flagship policies.