KEY POINTS:
The economic purists may have been wailing. Many Auckland Airport shareholders may have been weeping. The Labour Party was not giving a hoot about that yesterday. It was too busy having its best day at the office by far this year.
The Government's last-minute tightening of rules on foreign investment in strategic assets had effectively killed off the Canadian bid for a 40 per cent shareholding in the airport company.
And as a bonus - and no small one at that - Labour had finally got John Key where it wanted him; wriggling on the spot and being seen to be avoiding being pinned down as to what exactly National would have done about the Canadian offer had it been in government.
That is the kind of election-year question for which National's leader must have a ready, concise and credible answer.
Merely saying "we need to look at exactly what they are doing" or "we would see if it meets the criteria" is not good enough.
Key's less than definitive answers to reporters' questions reinforced the impression that National's strategy for covering its old Achilles' heel of asset sales amounted to little more than closing its eyes and ignoring the Government's announcement of the previous evening in the hope it would go away.
National's discomfort was obvious. Several hours passed yesterday before it came up with a response to the amendment of a regulation in the Overseas Investment Act.
National put up no questions in Parliament. It chose to stick with health as the topic for a snap debate. There was nothing but potential downside for National in debating foreign ownership of the country's international gateway.
That is because National Party ideology suggests the party should be bristling at such heavy-handed interference in the affairs of a private company. But National Party pragmatism means the party does not want to be seen opposing what will be a popular move by Labour.
This time Key's centrist clothing could not stretch far enough to reconcile these competing forces. This was not an issue where "me-tooism" could be deployed to counter Labour.
For Labour, however, there was nothing but political upside. Monday's decision by the Cabinet to strengthen the criteria under which overseas investors will be able to buy "strategically important infrastructure on sensitive land" was the right one politically.
As a Herald poll showed last year, selling shares in the airport company to foreigners is hugely contentious in the wider Auckland community.
Moreover, although Labour is no longer cloth cap, the prospect of such a major asset slipping eventually into foreign control cuts deep to the party's soul.
Ever since Phil Goff - hardly a leftie - voiced his opposition to the sale of shares to foreign interests before last year's local body elections, it has been clear the Government did not want to see a shareholding of the size that the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board was seeking leaving the country. What was not so apparent, but which became crystal-clear on Monday, is that the Government was never going to allow that to happen.
* Disclosure: John Armstrong owns shares in Auckland International Airport.
