The Labour Party is warning the Prime Minister to ignore the results of the asset sales referendum at his peril.
More than two-thirds of voters in the citizens-initiated referendum opposed the Government's plan to partially sell state-owned energy companies and Air New Zealand.
Labour's leader, David Cunliffe, says John Key is arrogant to push ahead with partial sales in spite of the overwhelming referendum result.
But the Prime Minister says National campaigned heavily on their asset sales programme at the last election and got their best ever result under MMP.
He says only 44 per cent of eligible voters took part in the referendum, which means the opposition managed to rally the support of only about 1 in 4 New Zealanders.