Low-key visit for National leader

National Party leader John Key was in Dunedin yesterday but not too many people would have been aware of it.

Mr Key flew into Dunedin, arriving at Cadbury Confectionery about 10.30am. He was met by three Cadbury senior employees and was shown through the chocolate shop - trailed by 15-strong media contingent.

Mr Key and his entourage were then ushered behind the company's security doors for more than an hour as national media representatives cooled their heels in the lobby eating complimentary chocolates.

Three of the media, accompanied by the Otago Daily Times, took a tour to Baldwin St in the interval before getting notification from one of Mr Key's staff that there were protesters waiting outside Cafe Rue, Moray Pl, where he was due to speak at 12.30pm.

The protesters, led by Labour's youth president, Eric Goddard, of Dunedin, had trailed Mr Key from the airport because details of the visit were not provided by his office.

The six protesters were busy handing out leaflets to passersby and getting into general discussion with National Party supporters arriving to hear Mr Key speak and launch the party's public sector policy.

At one stage, a gun-wearing policeman asked the protesters, who were standing with their backs to the wall holding a banner, whether they wanted to be arrested.

For what, one asked. Obstruction, was the reply. Was that with or without parole, Mr Goddard asked.

Looking around at the media contingent spread out blocking the footpath and the entrance to the cafe, it was clear which group was causing the most obstruction.

Mr Goddard said Mr Key's diary was impossible to access and if someone wanted to ask him questions in a public forum, they were unable to as he apparently was not having any public meetings before the election.

Told that Prime Minister Helen Clark's diary was also hard to access, Mr Goddard said more than 1000 students attended a rally held by Miss Clark at the University of Otago because they knew she was going to be speaking.

Mr Key was driven to Cafe Rue, from Cadbury Confectionery about 400m away, accompanied by two other cars carrying staff and diplomatic protection staff.

The policy launch was in front of about 75 supporters who paid $20 a head for the privilege.

After doing a media stand-up in the office of retiring National Party MP Katherine Rich, Mr Key returned to talk to the supporters.

To give him his due, Mr Key has been to Dunedin several times this year and has made a point of walking along George St and into shops to meet and greet people.

But this is the election campaign and he chose to be driven rather than walk through the supermarket car park to shake at least a couple of hands.

One of Mr Key's top advisers bristled at a suggestion by Taking the Pulse that his boss was on a "hit and run" visit to Dunedin.

But then he admitted that most of the regional visits were run around the schedule for the major television channels and that the campaign was being run out of the Auckland "hub".

Mr Key did walk from Moray Pl to the Otago Daily Times offices for an interview, accompanied by Taking the Pulse, his staff member and police.

We asked Mr Key what he thought he had achieved by his Dunedin visit.

The visit to the Cadbury factory was good because it gave him a chance to look at a company that was having to compete internationally and was working hard to bring an "Australasian" focus to its operations. The factory was doing well in development research.

It was also important to be in Dunedin to support the two local National Party candidates, Conway Powell (Dunedin South) and Michael Woodhouse (Dunedin North).

"There is a feeling for change out there and I am talking to receptive audiences. It would nice to shake hands with every New Zealander, or as many feasible one-to-one chats. But we are running out of time."

For his part, Dr Powell said it would have been wonderful to have Mr Key in town for a longer time as there was a long list of requests from people who wanted to see him.

However, pragmatic decisions had to be made on how he spent his time.

"I'm going out to a rest-home now and they asked if I could bring John along."

Having Mr Key speak to the supporters at the cafe was invaluable, Dr Powell said.

"A lot of those people will be out on Saturday wearing blue polo shirts. More of my team will be door-knocking on Saturday afternoon. These people do a tremendous lot of work for the party and it gives them a real pick-up when they see him."

Dr Powell said his answers were a "gut reaction" rather than official party policy.

Maybe Mr Key's visit was valuable to supporters and will be valuable in the future to Cadbury if it seeks some form of assistance with research and development funding, although National does plan to scrap that in government.

But whatever Prime Minister Miss Clark was doing yesterday, she had to be more public than Mr Key - even if she was in a Crown car and accompanied by diplomatic protection staff.

dene.mackenzie@odt.co.nz.