Focus on `underclass' as Key lays out differences

from Stuff

VERNON SMALL - The Dominion Post

National Party leader John Key will call for policies to tackle a growing underclass in society that has "lost hope" when he delivers his first main speech of the year in Burnside, Christchurch, tomorrow.

"A major theme will be tackling the growing emergence of an economic underclass," Mr Key said yesterday.

"I think it's a very important issue which affects all New Zealanders, either directly or indirectly."

Party strategists said some solutions would be included in the lunchtime speech but it would also set out a work programme for the party to develop policy in what have traditionally been areas of Labour Party strength.

It would show that National did not see the state as the only answer, but also saw a role for the private sector and voluntary organisations.

Most of his speech is likely to cover his concerns about the interrelated problems of long-term welfare dependency, crime, illiteracy, poor parenting, drugs, malnutrition and social exclusion.

Mr Key, who grew up in a state house in Christchurch suburb Bryndwr, clearly wants to link the neighbouring suburb of Burnside with National's strain of "compassionate conservatism" while further distancing himself from the "wedge" politics that had characterised former leader Don Brash's scene-setting speeches at Orewa.

The speech follows Mr Key's revamp late last year of National's policies on nuclear ships, race relations, welfare and climate change to make them more appealing to urban liberals and women, where National has been heavily out-polled by Labour.

A large contingent of National MPs is expected to attend the speech, which is seen by the party as a way to put a more modern face on National, mirroring its younger leadership team.

It would not put the heavy emphasis on individual responsibility that might be expected from a National leader, one strategist said, but would stress ways the Government and the community could help lift people out of the underclass.

The issue was illustrated by news of three "no-go" streets in Hamilton, where gang violence has prompted New Zealand Post to suspend mail deliveries, and concerns that Los Angeles-type gangs are marking out blocks of streets in South Auckland which they try to control.

Party faithful will provide the audience for the lunchtime speech, at a more media-friendly time than the traditional early-evening speech to Orewa Rotary.

Christchurch was chosen in part to distance Mr Key from the legacy of Dr Brash's addresses at Orewa, particularly his 2004 speech on race.

NZ First leader Winston Peters has taken over the vacant speaking slot at Orewa.

Mr Key's speech will be followed by a three-day National caucus retreat in Gisborne, expected to focus on constitutional issues such as the role of the Treaty of Waitangi, the foreshore and seabed law - including whether to back to the select committee stage the Maori Party's bill repealing Labour's controversial law - and a revised position on the abolition of the Maori seats.

Finance spokesman Bill English is expected to give an economic overview.

Labour will hold its three-day caucus retreat in a fortnight at the prime minister's Wellington residence, Premier House.

Parliament begins sitting for the year on February 13.