Written By: - Date published: 11:01 am, August 24th, 2011 - 17 comments
Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, August 20th, 2011 - 24 comments
Prime Minister John Key has reacted to growing fears that the world is slipping into a second round of financial crisis and recession before it has recovered from the first one by boldly opening a 180km cycleway through the King Country. Part of a $50m cycleway project, it is expected to boost the economy by $5-$20 quadrillion, according to the PM.
Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, December 21st, 2010 - 12 comments
National still seem to be getting a lot of cover for their economic mismanagement from the Global Financial Crisis way back in 2007-2008. But New Zealand’s failure to be “roaring out of recession”, as John Key promised, is no longer tied to the GFC. It’s Bill English and National’s economic policies that mean that the government deficit is pushing the limits with no reward for average kiwis.
Written By: - Date published: 1:12 pm, September 23rd, 2010 - 53 comments
The latest GDP figures are awful. the Reserve Bank had predicted 0.9% growth in the June Quarter. It came in at 0.2% – far worse than anyone expected and slower than population growth. The Key Government’s reaction? Deny there’s a problem and spin, spin, spin.
Written By: - Date published: 11:39 am, July 15th, 2010 - 15 comments
Prime Minister John Key today conceded that growth remains too weak, unemployment is too high, and that it is unacceptable that workers’ wages are going backwards when he promised they would match Australia’s in just 15 years. Speaking to a rapturous crowd of schoolchildren and journalists, Key announced a bold new economic agenda.
Written By: - Date published: 12:02 pm, May 31st, 2010 - 11 comments
After 15 months, just 10km of the 2000km John key Memorial Cycleway has been built at 3 times the budgeted cost. I’d like to see Goff take Key up on his offer of a ride on his recession-busting national cycleway. They’d be done in half an hour. Key’s flagship policy was always a joke and, now, everyone’s laughing. Come next year, voters are going to look at this record and say ‘on yer bike, John’.
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, May 24th, 2010 - 40 comments
I love that John Key is so desperate to show some progress on his memorial cycleway that he’s even going along to the opening of cycleways that aren’t funded with its money. On Sunday he showed up at the opening of a cycleway in Oamaru. The cycleway was funded by the council and NZTA. The recession has been over for a year – not a single job has been created, no cycleway built.
Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, February 27th, 2010 - 18 comments
We received this guest post about half an hour after John Key announced his cycleway. At the time, the very sensible criticisms it raises were ignored by an enamoured media.
How prescient it looks now, on the anniversary of the Prime Minister’s Jobs Summit.
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, February 5th, 2010 - 47 comments
Nearly a year ago, John Key, shaken by the first whispers of disquiet over his government’s month-long holiday at the height of an economic crisis (whispers that would later grow into cries of ‘Do Nothing’ Key), decided to hold the Prime Minister’s Jobs Summit. This would not be a talk-fest, it would be a ‘do-fest’ …
Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, November 23rd, 2009 - 27 comments
Anyone with a brain has always known Key’s cycleway is a joke. The sick thing is he’s now using it as a punchline himself: Barack Obama’s planned White House Job Summit struck a note with our own PM when he heard about it during the Singapore Apec meeting. “Maybe he’ll do a national cycleway,” John …
Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, November 18th, 2009 - 6 comments
As Irish has already noted, Fran O’Sullivan has savaged John Key’s record on employment and said that Paula Bennett is “too busy puffing her own achievements to pay much heed” to warnings on the dire long term-effects of high youth unemployment. What caught my eye was her quote from Key at the start. President Obama is looking for ways …
Written By: - Date published: 11:46 am, November 14th, 2009 - 10 comments
The Greens have announced the collapse of the cornerstone of their Memorandum of Understanding with National. With Gerry Brownlee as Minister for Energy, National hasn’t only failed to make progress on energy efficiency and conservation, it is taking illogical, retrograde steps. So why are the Greens continuing to provide greenwash for this government? I’m thinking about …
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, November 11th, 2009 - 6 comments
I’m all for cycle-ways but excuse me if I don’t get all silly over John Key knocking a post in the ground in Waikato and declaring his first cycle-way under way. The reality is the Waikato River Trail was being built anyway. In fact, it is already over half built. So this $3 million isn’t actually creating …
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, October 31st, 2009 - 8 comments
This just in: A picture of stage one of PM John Key’s personal solution to NZ’s recession – the cycleway to nowhere! OK, just kidding. It’s one of the images from The Guardian’s photo show on “Crap cycle lanes”. View them and weep, fellow cyclists… (If you want a political angle to haggle – how …
Written By: - Date published: 2:50 pm, October 15th, 2009 - 14 comments
Funny thing, I woke up this morning and thought to myself “what happened to the cycleway?” I was even going to put a “quick question” post up later today to see if anyone out there knew. Then just a few minutes ago a media release from Tourism New Zealand turned up in my inbox to …
Written By: - Date published: 4:44 pm, July 31st, 2009 - 75 comments
Just when we thought he couldn’t top the comic value of the cycleway…
Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, July 27th, 2009 - 19 comments
[At the outset of this, let me restate, once again, I'm all for cycleways. Indeed, I wish the Key government hadn't cut millions from urban cycling in the Budget. What I object to is the overhyping of a few possible cycleways as if they constitute some kind of economic recovery plan] Key has identified seven …
Written By: - Date published: 6:58 pm, July 12th, 2009 - 12 comments
Tv1 has revealed that our daydreamer PM had much much bigger plans for the cycleway. Like excited schoolkids, he and good mate Mark Weldon of the NZX drew up plans for a grand cycle race to be called the Sir Edmund Hillary tour that would go the length of New Zealand along the cycleway. They …
Written By: - Date published: 7:47 am, July 5th, 2009 - 12 comments
As CycleWatch hits 100 days, John Key’s been caught with his pants down. As No Right Turn explains a few days ago: [There has been no cost-benefit analysis] and now it seems to have abandoned its own timetable for beginning the project. Either that, or the Prime Minister is going to pull the initial selection …
Written By: - Date published: 8:43 am, June 23rd, 2009 - 17 comments
So 1,001,880 Australians visited New Zealand in the year to May, up 3.7% over the last May year despite the recession Yay? Well don’t pop the bubbly just yet. The total number of visitors fell 2.6% from 2,482,881 to 2,418,647. The decrease from other countries wiped out the gain from Australia. And here’s the important …
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, June 12th, 2009 - 7 comments
No Right Turn has been investigating John Key’s baby: Back in February, Prime Minister John Key came up with a bold and radical plan to end the recession and create jobs: a cycleway the length of New Zealand. As it became apparent that the plan was not a joke, and was in fact being taken …
Written By: - Date published: 11:09 am, May 19th, 2009 - 32 comments
Time: 54 days Jobs created: 0 Built (km): 0 out of 1500 Cost thus far: $50m (Budget 2009) Govt estimated cost (English): ‘Not $50m this year, next year, or the year after’ Country status: In recession Eddie wonders aloud: “Who’s more deluded, John Key for thinking his cycleway spin would make people forget about unemployment, …
Written By: - Date published: 3:31 pm, May 14th, 2009 - 22 comments
John Key has overruled Bill English and got the money for his beloved cycleway (now a group of “Great Rides”), $50 million spread over three years. I won’t waste too much time on the substance.The argument’s the same as it always was. Cycle tracks are neat but spending $50 million on them over three years …
Written By: - Date published: 8:33 pm, May 7th, 2009 - 4 comments
Time: 42 days Jobs created: 0 Built (km): 0 out of 1500 Cost thus far: $0 Govt estimated cost (English): “less than the $50m estimate originally put forward by Mr Key” Country status: In recession
Written By: - Date published: 9:27 am, April 12th, 2009 - 17 comments
We’ve all been subjected to mainstream journalists gushing over Key’s ‘strong leadership’ but now it’s being put to the test and we’re seeing weakness, not strength. Look at how he has dealt with Richard Worth compared to how Clark dealt with ministers. When Helen Clark was Prime Minister, especially in her early days, she had …
Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, April 9th, 2009 - 33 comments
Time: 14 days Jobs created: 0 Built (km): 0 out of 1500 Cost thus far: $0 Govt estimated cost: Not $50m this year, next year, or the year after that. Country status: In recession
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, March 27th, 2009 - 11 comments
As Minister of Works responding to a disaster in his portfolio, Bob Semple famously said ‘I am responsible but not to blame’. That has become one of our political mores. If they are not personally at fault, ministers shouldn’t have to take the blame when things go wrong but they are responsible for dealing with the …
Written By: - Date published: 5:38 pm, March 24th, 2009 - 22 comments
Prime Minister John Key has promised a national cycleway to solve the country’s economic woes. I intend to keep you informed of exactly how the cycleway is progressing. Yes, never fear, Eddie will dig out all the dirty details: how far the cycleway’s progressed, how many jobs it’s created, and how much it’s cost. This …
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