Posts Tagged ‘john key’
DPMC: The “Key” to increasing the PM’s power
Written By: - Date published: 9:28 am, February 3rd, 2010 - 14 comments
Last October I posted on National’s plan to fold the State Services Commission into the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Yesterday, Labour’s Grant Robertson revived the rumour. And since then Government pollster David Farrar has spent much of his energy reserves vigorously defending any transfer of power that may occur. But we should watch closely to […]
Key aids English’s latest rort
Written By: - Date published: 4:42 pm, December 8th, 2009 - 18 comments
Ministers are given self-drive taxpayer-funded cars for official business in their electorates (in Wellington they have crown limos at their disposal for official business). Pretty logically, the cars were always based at the ministers’ primary place of residence because that’s where they would need it. But that presented a problem for Bill ‘Double Dipton’ English. […]
So, where’s the plan?
Written By: - Date published: 12:42 pm, December 7th, 2009 - 34 comments
The Brash Report was supposed to tell us how to catch up to Aussie, as per Key’s promise. It was just the same old ideas. No real analysis. A radical plan with no evidence it would work. It became, perhaps as always intended, just a PR exercise for National: ‘Look what crazy old Brash wants […]
Hone back but Maori Party divisions laid bare
Written By: - Date published: 3:33 pm, December 3rd, 2009 - 8 comments
So Hone Harawira has been readmitted into the fold of the Maori Party. It’s hard to see how excluding him from Parliament until the end of the year is a punishment, given that he has repeatedly said he detests the place (and who can blame him?). It seems more like political convenience for the Maori […]
Key must bite the bullet over Copenhagen
Written By: - Date published: 11:03 am, November 27th, 2009 - 6 comments
Another instalment of “John Key’s” video diary from talented impersonator PlumedeKiwi; this time taking a comedic stab at the PM’s refusal to attend the UN climate talks in Copenhagen. Key has come under an increasing amount of pressure in recent weeks over the summit, widely dubbed one of the most important meetings in history. It’s […]
Another Key foot in mouth
Written By: - Date published: 7:17 am, November 23rd, 2009 - 39 comments
John Key sure is a class act. Not. Latest example*: Stadium funds: We’re not Indian-givers, says Key Prime Minister John Key yesterday said the Government was unlikely to ask for its $15 million back if the Forsyth Barr Stadium is not finished in time for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. … The issue of whether […]
Rodney Hide caught in a lie
Written By: - Date published: 5:28 pm, November 5th, 2009 - 40 comments
Interesting comment from ‘gobsmacked’ on Rodney Hide’s statement that John Key “doesn’t do anything” and how he as a minister can ram pretty much anything he likes through cabinet: There’s a bigger story here, incidentally. Rodney Hide has been caught out in a lie. The whole ‘fundraiser’ row was all about whether Hide was acting […]
Key & English lose us $21mil in 3 months
Written By: - Date published: 3:23 pm, November 4th, 2009 - 40 comments
Back in February, former currency speculator John Key and former Treasury adviser Bill English started talking about suspending contributions to the Cullen Fund, which was set up to help fund superannuation. ‘It’s losing so much money’, they wailed. Some people pointed out that the markets were already recovering, that investments could now be bought at […]
Brash’s mea culpa
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, November 2nd, 2009 - 17 comments
Strange mea culpa from Don Brash on the foreshore and seabed in today’s Dom. He doesn’t go as far as to apologise for National’s cynical and deliberate attempt to ignite racial conflict in the leadup to the 2005 election, but he does admit that National “got it wrong” on the foreshore and seabed. Wonder what […]
Reflections on the ERA
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, October 22nd, 2009 - 4 comments
There’s been a fair bit of coverage of John Key’s use of the CTU conference to divide and rule over wages and announce he’ll be making it even easier for employers to sack people without going through the proper process, but it was this statement that really caught my attention: … the National Party’s election […]
Lockout at Bridgeman Concrete
Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, September 16th, 2009 - 14 comments
Last week I wrote: We’re seeing a new pattern in work relations emerging. The big employers, emboldened by having their party in power and using the recession as an excuse, are attacking workers’ pay and conditions. Now, on the same day Talley and National-linked Open Country Cheese begins shutting out its workers and illegally using […]
National-linked dairy company threatens six week lockout
Written By: - Date published: 12:26 pm, September 11th, 2009 - 31 comments
There’s a nasty dispute brewing at Open Country Cheese involving a six week lockout threat, some highly aggressive anti-union PR, calls for the Government to gut labour laws and major links between the company and senior National Party figures. It’s early days yet, but this could be a big one. Open Country Cheese was founded […]
Holding Bennett to account
Written By: - Date published: 2:18 pm, August 11th, 2009 - 59 comments
NZPA reports: Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff has confirmed she will investigate Social Development Minister Paula Bennett after the release of details of two mothers’ income. Good. John Key has made it clear he won’t hold his ministers to account for abusing their power, now it’s up to the Privacy Commisioner to do his job for […]
Padding pockets, not houses
Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, August 11th, 2009 - 45 comments
Just a month into the Government’s housing insulation programme and John Key has had to launch an inquiry into rorting by contractors who are taking the subsidy but also increasing their prices, and so pocketing a good part of the subsidy themselves rather than passing it on to the consumer as intended. That’s a bad […]
More cycleway spin
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 […]
Plenty of pixie dust for the cycleway
Written By: - Date published: 12:11 pm, July 21st, 2009 - 39 comments
John Key says there are “no pixies printing cash” to help Kiwis who’ve lost their jobs under his government’s watch. Funny, because there’s plenty of pixie dust for Key’s cycleway. Pixie dust is in no short supply to subsidise Key’s rich mates who want to send their kids to elitist private schools. And there’s buckets […]
“Creeping communism” a success
Written By: - Date published: 3:07 pm, July 20th, 2009 - 6 comments
Missed this from a couple of days ago: For the first time in 25 years, the incomes of those in lower brackets grew more quickly than those on higher incomes, the Household Income Survey by the Social Development Ministry found. It credits Working for Families with the turnaround and says it also helped avert a […]
The Salesman
Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, July 20th, 2009 - 12 comments
One of the stories from John Key’s days as a currency trader is that he was always more of a salesman than an analyst. He wasn’t good at picking markets and investments; he was good at getting people to trust him with their money. He got New Zealanders to put their trust in him too […]
Key grins blankly, shrugs shoulders
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, July 15th, 2009 - 42 comments
I was going to do a fisking of Key’s ‘major speech‘ today. But there’s nothing to fisk, no substance, no ideas, no vision. There’s just endless recycling of the same old Crosby-Textor lines and waffle. In fact, there’s one section that is just a bunch of rehashed lines – one after the other. You get […]
We can haz vision?
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, July 14th, 2009 - 31 comments
According to NZPA John Key is going to deliver a big speech tomorrow in which he will “detail the problems and solutions for New Zealand’s economy”. I’m not holding my breath. As I said two weeks ago when he indicated he would announce a plan to stop job losses (he still hasn’t, perhaps this will […]
Good news for care workers
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, July 10th, 2009 - 8 comments
It’s good news that carers for people with intellectual disabilities are getting more recognition. A court decision has found that sleep-over shifts are work and, so, workers need to be paid at least the minimum wage for the whole shift, not just when they have to get up to assist the person. Apparently, that will […]
Seriously, there are better uses for $10 mil
Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, July 10th, 2009 - 35 comments
Why are we giving $10 million a year in aid to Niue with a population of 1600? It’s $6250 per person each bloody year. About half their GDP (most of the rest is remittances). We finance their whole government. We’ve given them an extra $20 million (ie one whole year’s GDP) over the last five […]
Privatising the high country
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, July 8th, 2009 - 29 comments
According to Forest and Bird, John Key’s government has found a nice quiet way of hocking off New Zealand’s most prized assets to wealthy private interests. National has indicated radical changes to tenure review – that’s the process South Island high country leaseholders can use to privatise parts of the farm in exchange for returning […]
Cowardice, bigotry and saying whatever it takes
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, July 2nd, 2009 - 77 comments
I’ll be glad to see the back of the Foreshore & Seabed Act. For many on the Left, including myself, its been a monument to Labour’s failure of nerve in the face of a campaign by National to exploit the underlying racism of Pakeha New Zealand for electoral gain. Yes, there was a certain electoral […]
Don’t just stand there
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, June 25th, 2009 - 20 comments
John Key’s government has reacted to the thousands of job losses occurring each week in this country in much the same way a possum crossing a road reacts to headlights. Since over-promising and under-delivering with the Jobs Summit, they’ve been exposed as completely out of ideas. The dole queue is growing by 1100 each week, […]
McJobs
Written By: - Date published: 11:13 am, June 25th, 2009 - 83 comments
John Key, 20 May 2007: My legacy will be a strong New Zealand economy with higher wages, lower taxes and greater competitiveness. My legacy will be a country that young New Zealanders want to stay and work in. The Press, 25 June 2009: Thousands of beneficiaries could soon be flipping burgers under a deal between […]
Roger Douglas on Key and English
Written By: - Date published: 11:54 am, June 21st, 2009 - 19 comments
Commenting on Key’s policy to force the Guardians of the Super Fund to invest 40% of funds in New Zealand, ACT’s Roger Douglas notices a pattern we’ve posted on here at The Standard before: “This only enforces the emerging trend we have seen between Mr Key and Mr English. Mr Key announces a stupid idea […]
Know when to fold ’em
Written By: - Date published: 2:11 pm, June 15th, 2009 - 40 comments
A string of high-profile stuff-ups. You were too smug and incompetent to deal with them. A disappointment to your boss. Key put a lot of faith in you. He defended you at first before cutting you loose to protect his brand. A devastating public humiliation. After which it is clear you have no political future. […]
Kneecapped
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, June 9th, 2009 - 11 comments
Until now, Melissa Lee’s only remaining selling point in this train wreck of a campaign has been that the party she’s standing for is currently in Government. As she said in her press release yesterday: ‘I am the only candidate that Mt Albert voters can vote for that will be inside John Key’s Government.’ Unfortunate […]
Pigs
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, May 27th, 2009 - 15 comments
It’s good to see Green MP Sue Kedgley calling on John Key to personally fix the abuse of pigs in sow crates. The chair of Nawac appears incapable of seeing that there’s even a problem, and the Minister of Agriculture has already been caught misleading the public on national television to defend the industry. It’s […]
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