Ask a silly question ...

You'd think that having been in Parliament since 1981 (bar the period between the 1990 and 1993 elections) Phil Goff would know what questions to ask, what questions not to ask and when to stop digging. Apparently not. He asked one Supplementary Question too many in Question 1 this afternoon (our emphasis added):

Hon Phil Goff: In assessing which assets the Prime Minister, and the National Government, might put up for sale, has he considered past experience with privatisation, when a private sector board ran Air New Zealand into bankruptcy and private owners asset-stripped KiwiRail and ran it into the ground?

Hon JOHN KEY: The Leader of the Opposition has a fair point. If one is going to consider these matters, one should definitely seek someone who has had experience. Maybe, just maybe, the Minister of Finance and I should go and have a chat with the Leader of the Opposition, because that is the man who sold Telecom, the State Insurance Office, the Post Office Bank, Air New Zealand, the Tourist Hotel Corporation, New Zealand Steel, Petrocorp, the Government Printing Office, the DFC, the National Film Unit, the Rural Banking and Finance Corporation, the Shipping Corporation, New Zealand Liquid Fuel Investment, Maui Gas, SynFuels, forest cutting rights, Health Computing Services and Communicate New Zealand. If there is ever a man who knows something about privatisation, it is that one.

Oh dear! We starting to wonder if Phil Goff has been taking lessons in the art of scoring from the Shadow Minister of Own Goals himself! If so, Chris Carter is a far better teacher than we gave him credit for!!