A try hard in America

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, July 19th, 2011 - 43 comments
Categories: Minister for Overseas Holidays - Tags:

Key’s off on holiday again. 5 days of taxpayer-funded travel and the only real meeting will be half an hour with Obama. But first, he’s in LA solely to have dinner with Warners. Value for our money eh? Key’s more excited about standing in the Oval Office so he can pretend to be powerful than achieving anything solid from his time in the US.

Even the msm wonder if the guy isn’t taking the piss:

John Key appears to have tacked on Los Angeles onto his trip to the United States for the sole purpose of having dinner with movie executives from Warner Bros tonight.

Key has arrived in LA for an otherwise low-key start to his five-day American visit.

He confirmed he will dine with executives from Warner Bros, the studio that became embroiled in an industrial relations dispute with New Zealand actors over the Peter Jackson-directed movie The Hobbit.

Key has no other significant engagements in LA other than the Warner Bros meeting.

I wonder who will pick up the bill for the meal? Oh right, we already paid. And $94 million more besides.

43 comments on “A try hard in America ”

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  1. andy (the other one) 1
    19 July 2011 at 10:59 am

    Audrey Young, twitter twatting a photo of the NZ Consulate afternoon tea and other inane fangirl drivel…

    Tuesday, 9am (NZT): John Key’s US trip has just begun. We landed in sunny Los Angeles a short time ago.

    He’s got two days here in California working up a sweat at afternoon teas, cocktail parties and receptions before the heavy lifting over two days in Washington.

    The programme is pitifully light in LA: two appointments in 10 hours, and one of them is afternoon tea with the consulate in a few hours.

    It’s a bit fuller in Silicon Valley and San Francisco tomorrow.

    Key loves nothing better than a deal and maybe some substance will emerge from his encounters with Warner Bros, Facebook and Google over the next two days.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10739430

    • Bright Red 1.1
      19 July 2011 at 11:09 am

      she’s taking the piss out of him, in a pretty low key way, I think. Although perpetuating this myth that he’s an amazing deal maker. I can’t name one good deal he’s made for New Zealand.

      • Lanthanide 1.1.1
        19 July 2011 at 12:02 pm

        “I can’t name one good deal he’s made for New Zealand.”

        He went along with the S59 anti-smacking palava.

      • Rodel 1.1.2
        19 July 2011 at 9:23 pm

        She has to be taking the piss. Audrey Young’s statements like the meaningless one quoted below must be tongue in cheek.. someone tell me she doesn’t really think at this level!! Please!!
        Nah. Maybe she’s really clever but making sure she doesn’t get tossed off the gravy train.
        quote……
        “It”s a bit like Key”s trip to India or US or anywhere — it brings the relationship into sharp focus and makes both parties stop and think about where their undertakings are at and what’s next in the relationship……. “

  2. freedom 2
    19 July 2011 at 11:05 am

    picture the meets with FB and Google,

    Google exec: “So Mr Prime Minister, what infrastructure do you forsee NZ investing in to accommodate the growing development of business in the Cloud?”

    PM: ” I saw some clouds yesterday from the cockpit”

  3. Craig Glen Eden 3
    19 July 2011 at 11:44 am

    Key swans around with more photo ops, mean while the surfs back hom in New Zuland deal with real rising inflation and trying to make ends meet.

    I understand that PMs and Ministers have to do over seas gigs but shit a brick, dinner with Warners Executives? This guy is a total bloody sell out, first the workers and now assets.

    • felix 3.1
      19 July 2011 at 12:36 pm

      You don’t get it Craig.

      Whatever Key feels like doing at the time – helicopter rides, touching people who make movies, playing “Bill and Monica” in the oval orifice – that’s the PM’s job.

      So he’s always doing his job, ‘cos his job is whatever he’s doing.

      • Craig Glen Eden 3.1.1
        19 July 2011 at 12:45 pm

        Yeah he might be doing his job but he is hardly productive. I suspect he wants to be seen shaking Obamas hand before the election, from what Young is tweeting she is not seeing much substance.

        So surely if the muppet’s as Key calls them have to be efficient so does he? Because at the end of the day we are all paying for his jaunt he is just a public servant after all..

    • travellerev 3.2
      19 July 2011 at 5:47 pm

      That would be serfs. Here in Ragtown near the blacksands we get confused if you call us surfs.

  4. Lanthanide 4
    19 July 2011 at 12:01 pm

    Repost from Open Mic:

    So John Key may not get to meet Obama after all. The day the meeting is scheduled is also the day that Obama has set as the deadline for sorting out the debt limit.

    If the republicans force it to the deadline, or as I think they will after the deadline (just to show Obama is powerless), then Key won’t get his meet and greet.

  5. queenstfarmer 5
    19 July 2011 at 12:10 pm

    Oh right, we already paid. And $94 million more besides
    Well then I’m glad that John Key is at least going to get a dinner back off them in reduction of the damage caused by Helen Kelly.

    • Colonial Viper 5.1
      19 July 2011 at 12:21 pm

      Fuck off loser

      Our half billionaire (you know the one) gamed the system to rip more money off the tax payer for his Hollywood Masters. Workers and unions were a convenient scape goat. Especially when they were asking for exactly what their colleagues in successful film industries in Australia, Canada, the US and the UK already have.

      His threats to move production to Ireland or Estonia or wherever the fuck were never credible

      Key came running along like a good little lapdog

      • Deb 5.1.1
        19 July 2011 at 2:30 pm

        Delightful I’m sure.

      • queenstfarmer 5.1.2
        19 July 2011 at 2:31 pm

        So Helen Kelly was in on the plot, huh? Very clever. Especially while she was also getting so many actors and production personnel offside!

        His threats to move production…

        It was Warners threat, and thank goodness John Key was able to save the production for NZ.

        • McFlock 5.1.2.1
          19 July 2011 at 5:46 pm

          Fuck you’re gullible. John Key “saved” the production?
           
          John Key was the money manager who got charged the “pretend to be angry – maybe we didn’t completely empty out their bank account” levy, but didn’t care because it wasn’t his money.

    • framu 5.2
      19 July 2011 at 3:23 pm

      “caused by Helen Kelly.”

      really? explain

      how was it caused by HK ?

      • queenstfarmer 5.2.1
        19 July 2011 at 6:09 pm

        By stupidly trying to dictate terms to a multinational studio in the most clumsy and inept fashion imaginable, and very nearly turning the whole apple cart over, forcing the Govt to appease Warners (yes that’s what they had to do) to keep the production here.

        • McFlock 5.2.1.1
          19 July 2011 at 6:32 pm

          That’s one interpretation.
          The other is that Keyster ran to pay a half-requested bribe with money that belonged to other people, all because one incompetent employer took offense at being reamed in court for not knowing the difference between a service contract and an employment agreement. Oh yeah, and Keychain also rushed to ensure that the man would not have to treat workers fairly.

        • Colonial Viper 5.2.1.2
          19 July 2011 at 10:22 pm

          So instead our weak kneed NZ govt let a multinational studio dictate terms to us. Great.

          Fuck off.

          • queenstfarmer 5.2.1.2.1
            20 July 2011 at 12:19 am

            Yes I’m sure that’s what the hundreds of workers currently employed on the films would have wanted the Govt to tell the producers (or just let Ms Kelly say it for them).

            The reality is that the Govt was forced to make a choice – risk a massive multi-film project and hundreds of jobs and possibly future projects all due to Ms Kelly’s tactics, or make concessions to guarantee it went ahead. It was a bad situation but the Govt got a pretty good outcome in the circumstances.

            • Jum 5.2.1.2.1.1
              20 July 2011 at 12:34 am

              queenstfarmers

              And thanks to all the incompetent queenstfarmers running this government, the TPPA will effectively allow every other multinational to control remaining free people and Kiwi owned assets in New Zealand; thieves the lot of ya.

            • Colonial Viper 5.2.1.2.1.2
              20 July 2011 at 12:37 am

              Hey buddy get this into your fucking thick skull

              NZ workers deserve the same rights and recognition in the entertainment industry as their colleagues in the successful Australian, Canadian, US and UK film industries. The movie was never going to be put back a year or moved to the Irish Winter or the Estonian Winter or the Czech Winter.

              The fact that you are backing a sell out card carrying union member-half billionaire traitor to his own country who decided to extract even more money on behalf of the Hollywood studios who run him, instead of backing NZ workers says a lot.

              The real target was massively increased tax payer subsidies for a film which is going to make hundreds of millions any way, not a few hundred thousand more in NZ worker benefits which included basic working conditions around things like break times and transport allowances.

              Frakin loser

              • queenstfarmer …
                20 July 2011 at 12:41 pm

                a sell out card carrying union member-half billionaire traitor to his own country
                Sheesh, even Helen Kelly backed off making nasty personal attacks against Peter Jackson. Did he refuse your application for a bit-role perhaps? 🙂

              • Speaking Sense to Unions …
                20 July 2011 at 12:59 pm

                “The movie was never going to be put back a year or moved to the Irish Winter or the Estonian Winter or the Czech Winter.”

                preferring to shoot in winterless Wellington I suppose.

        • framu 5.2.1.3
          20 July 2011 at 7:38 am

          QSF

          so the fact that,

          HK was called/stepped in AFTER the sh*t hit the fan,
          the resulting law change didnt even effect actors,
          the timelines in the drama have some very questionable disparities (which can be taken either way depending on your position)
          WB had already spent something like 1mil on pre production,
          the destination that they threatened to move the production to was heavily unionised,
          and that WB and PJ got a bigger subsidy which was exactly what PJ earlier called for in his review of film funding

          has no bearing on the matter?

          It simply all the fault of hellen kelly?

          I mean – your free to side with whatever version of events you like. Im not trying to convert you at all. But you seem to be missing the bulk of the argument when you lay the blame at the feet of HK.

    • Ianupnorth 5.3
      19 July 2011 at 4:52 pm

      $94 million plus throwing away the legitimate rights of workers – the man is a coward.

  6. freedom 6
    19 July 2011 at 1:32 pm

    let’s just hope Gould Arkansas doesn’t end up on his agenda

    or he may come back with a whole new box of tricks, as well as the Pennsylvania Avenue keychain

  7. Brett 7
    19 July 2011 at 2:36 pm

    The bitchiness on this site is unreal.

  8. JS 8
    19 July 2011 at 4:47 pm

    Radio NZ has squandered some of its tiny overseas travel budget to send a reporter on the trip. What I’ve heard so far verges on hagiographic. Even our public broadcasters seem hypnotised.

  9. Ianupnorth 9
    19 July 2011 at 4:55 pm

    This paragraph pretty much sells why Key has gone….

    When they came down they [Warner Bros] said ‘come to the States, come and see us, come and see all the things we are doing’. They are very keen to build a long-term relationship with us. They see us as a strategic partner and New Zealand as a quirky but talented little market that’s quite cheap.”

    So it’s ‘come make your movies here’ because ‘you can pay our monkeys peanuts and we will back you all the way’
     
    The man is a criminal!

    And then he comes out with this gem…

    Before leaving yesterday, Key told reporters the Government wanted to build a partnership with Warner Brothers “like they have with the United Kingdom, where they film the Harry Potter movies.”

    In case you hadn’t noticed John, they were set in the UK, where they have lots of castles – plus JK Rowling is a socialist who demanded they were filmed there!

  10. freedom 10
    19 July 2011 at 5:25 pm

    “The prime minister’s office had earlier advised that attempts to arrange trade related activities fell over because of the absence of key players and significant road works. ”

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/politics/5304085/PMs-special-movie-studio-meeting

    is he seriously blaming the lack of official meetings on Carmageddon ?
    or is ‘road works Trade Delegation lingo?

    • Ianupnorth 10.1
      19 July 2011 at 9:34 pm

      According to one of the media reports the journey that should have taken 45 mins took 10!

    • Vicky32 10.2
      20 July 2011 at 1:57 am

      From what I heard on the BBC WS at the time, most of the nearby residents thought “Carmageddon” was heaven!

  11. Boris Clarksky 11
    19 July 2011 at 8:02 pm

    Key’s off on holiday again. 5 days of taxpayer-funded travel and the only real meeting will be half an hour with Obama.

    A five day tax-payer funded business trip to a strategically important country? You’re right comrade! [deleted, homophobic]

  12. tc 12
    19 July 2011 at 8:07 pm

    No JS not hypnotized but ‘aligned’ thanks to some clever management shuffles at RNZ with jackboot Joyce and CT past masters at media manipulation.

    You can’t blame Key with all the sycophantic treatment he gets why not make the most of it….at our expense. Say bad things get kicked off the tour is how it works now and the nats bear grudges for a long long time and NZ is a very small pool.

  13. Bill 13
    19 July 2011 at 8:54 pm

    Production of National Party election ads wouldn’t be coming courtesy of Warner Bro studios by any chance?

  14. marty mars 14
    19 July 2011 at 10:39 pm

    he’s probably got a script for warners about a humble kid called johnny…