The Standard » cycleway

Chart o’ the day: drop meet ocean

Zetetic — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 23:01:11 +0000

Economic cycle

Zetetic — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 22:52:20 +0000

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.

National cause of dire economy

Bunji — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 01:20:50 +0000

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.

Spinning while the economy burns

Marty G — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 01:12:35 +0000

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.

PM punts for growth

Zetetic — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:39:45 +0000

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.

On yer bike, John

Marty G — Mon, 31 May 2010 00:02:18 +0000

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'.

No progress on Key memorial cycleway

Marty G — Sun, 23 May 2010 21:30:06 +0000

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.

Re:Cycle (re-run)

Guest post — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:03:54 +0000

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.

The 59,000 failures of John Phillip Key

Marty G — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:31:41 +0000

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’ ...

Key’s flagship policy now his joke

Zetetic — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:19:32 +0000

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 ...

Laugh track

Marty G — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:57:48 +0000

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 ...

Greens greenwashing for anti-environment govt

Marty G — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:46:56 +0000

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 ...

Spin cycle finally into 1st gear

Marty G — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:30:09 +0000

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 ...

Cycleway to nowhere

r0b — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:30:57 +0000

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 ...

So what was phase one?

IrishBill — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:50:12 +0000

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 ...