Do you think that it is appropriate for tax payer funds to have been used in Labour's failed attempt to smear John Key??? We don't.
Do you think that the PM knew as little about this smear attempt as she is now claiming? We don't.
Do you think that this cock-up by Mike Williams et al is going to be the final nail in the coffin for the Labour-led Axis Government? We do.
The Press today reveals that tax payer funds were used in the attempted smear. And the Labour Party funded Mike Williams travel to Melbourne - something Rt Hon Helen Clark PM of New Zealand for the last 9 years deined. This election is about trust don't forget.
Labour is trying to avoid the fallout from the so-called "H-bomb" it has dropped on John Key as it emerges taxpayer funds have been used in the attempt to find dirt on the National Party leader.
Labour leader Helen Clark and party president Mike Williams were at odds yesterday over who paid for him to fly to Melbourne to trawl through 13,000 pages of court documents relating to the trial of Equiticorp bosses over fake foreign transactions 20 years ago.
Key worked for one of the companies that helped finance the deal but was not involved in the transactions.
The $100 million-plus transactions, which saw former Equiticorp boss Alan Hawkins jailed, were known as the "H-Fee". Labour Cabinet minister Trevor Mallard has referred to the matter as the "H-bomb" that Labour planned to drop on Key.
However, the bomb appeared to have backfired, after Labour was unable to find any smoking gun in the documents, despite Williams bringing 24kg of documentation back to New Zealand.
The court documents showed that Key was working at Elders Finance when one of the illegal transactions took place, despite Key previously saying he left a month beforehand.
Key said on Wednesday that he was unaware of the transaction when he made his comments last year.
It emerged yesterday that Labour used its taxpayer-funded research unit to trawl through the documents, and also that its chief campaign strategist, senior MP Pete Hodgson, was also working on the story with Williams.
Williams told TVNZ last night that the Labour Party had funded his trip to Australia a claim at odds with Clark's version of events.
