Written By:
Anthony R0bins - Date published:
9:32 am, May 22nd, 2013 - 37 comments
Categories: accountability, energy, john key -
Tags: lies, solid energy
Govt blocked grandiose Solid Energy plans in 2009
The government blocked proposals in 2009 from its coal mining company Solid Energy for a billion-dollar capital injection to allow it to become “the Petrobras of this country”, Prime Minister John Key says.
Key says Govt turned down Solid Energy loan plan
Prime Minister John Key has released papers which he says prove the Government turned Solid Energy down for a capital loan.
Key released the papers today in response to Labour’s accusations that he misled the public in claiming the coal miner had requested a $1 billion investment from the Government. The Prime Minister is adamant that he turned a bid down. …
However, former Solid Energy chairman John Palmer has rejected Key’s suggestion that the company wanted large sums of money to invest in new projects. …
Labour leader David Shearer today reacted to the Prime Minister’s claims by saying that “Key is trying to cover his tracks with false leads on the $1 billion claim”.
“Key has scored an own goal by releasing paperwork to supposedly prove his claim that Solid Energy asked him for a billion dollars, when the documents actually show the company wanted to chase billions of dollars from private investors not the Crown,” he said.
Key Must Front Up With $1 Billion Evidence
John Key must front up with the evidence that Solid Energy formally requested a $1 billion dollar capital injection after the former company chair blew that claim out of the water, says Labour’s SOEs Spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove.
“The Prime Minister has just made it up and he’s been found out. He tried to create the impression he was some kind of white knight riding to the rescue of taxpayers by knocking back a Solid Energy bid for $1 billion capital injection. But that’s now been exposed as just a fantasy in his own mind. Although there is another word for that!
“This is what John Key told Kiwis at a press conference on February 25th: ‘They (Solid Energy) wanted a very large capital injection in the order of $1 billion’.
“But former chairman John Palmer has blown that claim out of the water saying: ‘I cannot recall that we have ever asked him explicitly for $1 billion dollars’.
“So who’s telling the truth? With the Prime Minister’s track record, it’s not likely to be him.
Key’s $1b Solid Energy request in doubt
Newly released papers raise fresh questions over Prime Minister John Key’s claim that Solid Energy asked for $1 billion of taxpayers’ money to fund its transformation into a massive resources company.
Key made the claim earlier this year when it was revealed the state-owned coal miner was on the verge of collapse under the weight of almost $400 million in debt. …
Solid Energy’s business proposal said the Government’s willingness to forgo dividends from Solid Energy and Kupe were essential for the project to proceed, and it would require extra equity of up to $1 billion on top of that to fund the expansion.
However, it did not seek that from the Government in the proposals, saying: “All this can be achieved … without requiring a direct Government equity contribution (other than forgoing dividends from Solid Energy and Kupe for up to 5-10 years).”
This is not just a case of a momentary “brain fade” from Key. He made the claim repeatedly, tried to justify it, but the claim is not true. Once again, John Key has been caught in a lie.
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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How much did John Key’s Government extort from Solid Energy in extra/enhanced dividends since becoming PM? Maybe that’s where he’s got his $1 billion from? He is, after all, susceptible to brain fades… easy mistake to make when you suffer from Transient Global Amnesia.
You left out this bit
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10885264
He’s right. It’s easy to see why Key would tell lies: for political gain.
Sounds more like this John Palmer is trying to cover his arse.
Why? Are you saying the lying Prime Minister would retaliate, as a perfect expression of everything he represents?
I think this guy Palmer had a chat with Key and Key said I don’t think so.
Plan gets canned and destroyed, arse covering moves into over drive as shit starts to hit the fan.
Wouldn’t be surprised if the money that was asked for was to actually hide the bullshit and provide more time to either escape or for the market to come right.
Money didn’t eventuate, Solid energy went tits up.
you can read all about it here.
Simple fact: John Key lied and has done so repeatedly.
Blinkered Monetarist
PinoKeyo can’t even get the year right!
no. you are trying to cover this governments arse. solid energy was debt free and returning a healthy profit to its owner(us) until english put the squeeze on it to increase debt and pay a bigger dividend. then, it was all downhill. so, the national government,who hides behind the fiction of being business savvy have forced what was a heathy taxpayer owned business to the brink of insolvency through greed,foolishness and incompetence.
This seems an okay place for this quote from Tom Robbins that I just got on goodreads.
cho. Rizo
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas is as close as Tom Robbins gets to Ayn Rand. “Everyone’s got a hard luck story.”
he is becoming our version of Clinton’s “it depends what you mean by ” (fill in the blank Mr Key.
So much for 2008 a year he peppered the public through media and in person with his accountability, honesty and transparency promises.
will there be an apology to the nation ?
good god no… and watch him scuttle off to buck house to get his knighthood from the queen when he finally lets go… nothing so tawdry as receiving his honour in NZ amongst NZers.
Key sold a 35 year gambling license for 400+ million dollars. There are kids yet born who will be snagged by this gambling law into addition. That’s plain wrong, but it gets worse, the conference center they will build will not be owned by the govt! But wait! There’s more! Under free trade competitors who would have liked to have bid on the gambling-conference center deal have been denied, that’s illegal, what are councils to now so tightly contort contracts that only one developer can possible bid on and leave the council without any power to bid down the contracts – smacks of corruption. The conference center ownership has nothing to do with the gambling license!
Yet its even worse! It makes a joke of parliament, along with bringing parliament into ridicule when the govt blocked out the legal snarls in the home carers, and the soon to be joke of a Governor General who signs the law into effect only to have the first court who *will* accept the right of a carer to a legal remedy, and will then read the intent of parliament, and then will quite correct (and arguably) dismiss the law as illegal since the MPs could not reasonably consented to it since they did not know the legal risks. Else we are no longer a Nation of LAW.
Key conference center will become the lightening point for any future revolution.
Out of curiosity, is there any reciprocal requirement for the convention centre to remain open for the 35 year period? What is to stop SkyCity from closing the convention centre after 4 or 5 years while still enjoying their 35 years of privilege with regard to gambling licence?
How proud nat supporters must be that the govt has chosen the selfless relatives of the most vulnerable in society to save money for, amongst other things, its 2009 tax cuts for the top earners
+1
More lies from #johnnylyingbum
In his book ‘Dirty Collars’ ex SFO head Charles Sturt says this of the vast powers bestowed on his department,
“while a person may be compelled to answer questions, these answers may only be used in evidence if the accused subsequently gives evidence inconsistent with their previous statements”
John Key, did you lie to the Serious Fraud Office & Australia’s National Crime Authority about resigning from Elders Merchant Finance in 1988?
It is the “bland unconcern” about truthfulness that is a bit hard to stomach. About 1 in 1000 kids are able to do the “bland unconcern” delivery which suggests some sort of anti-social condition. The ones I have in my memory mostly came into conflict with the law though one or two became “successful” businessmen. Perhaps socio-pathic?
not bland unconcern when it was the lowest on their list…. what stuns me is how many of the Nats wanted Gilmore gone for a lie but wont admit their leader lies…
It’s not a surprise once you understand the authoritarian mindset. These people will say that their leader is right no matter what the evidence shows and no matter what the crime was/is.
… for as long as he dangles the hope of further power in front of them.
I call it the “suspension of disbelief syndrome”, the same faculty in the human mind that allows us to enjoy theatre and films by not employing our normal critical judgement. For example, if you are watching a horror movie, you cannot understand why someone doesn’t believe there is some sort of monster murdering everyone, whereas in reality anyone who said there was would be considered mad. Aristotle first proposed the theory.
Values 101
Cheating in class is a widespread problem. It affects the cheater and all who feel pressured to participate. One person making a decision to be honest can make a big difference as shown in this spot.
There is tension in the air as children in a classroom are taking a math test. One boy needs help and desperately asks his friend for an answer. The teacher sees the two boys cheating and leaves all of us waiting to know the outcome. Happily…Honesty was the answer.
http://www.values.com/inspirational-stories-tv-spots/91-Classroom
Half truths and white lies dont count either…. how about those mum and dad investors a?
What’s intruiging is Key’s arrogance that he can keep biting the hand that feeds through sheer laziness and poor planning i.e no hard yards/graft.
Dumping Palmer/Elder etc in it rather than construct a reasonably credible yarn with them shows to me he doesn’t do any strategic planning about how to manage the scenario and now has put offside the exact element he should be cuddling up to and would do so easily if he wasn’t just a tosser.
Will John Key be remembered as the Bernie Madoff of NZ politics?
Blinkered Monetarist
PinoKeyo can’t even get the year right!
Nixon with out the tapes a lying d worm
Key makes Muldoon look like a real good sort.
‘
Nice work Anthony. Surprising to see some MSM follow through deliver a refresher on this one, and in the New Zealand Herald no less. This lie came before John Key reorgnanised his Ministry of Truth and its been interesting to observe something of a change in Key since. Is it just me or have others noticed John Key is a lot less definite these days, more often than not prefacing or appending his comments with phrases like “as far as I am aware” and so on?
The brand managers have been at him, I would say. But, its all too late. The cat is out of the bag when it comes to John Key and his troubled relationship with the truth . . .
What would his Mum think?
was that the mum in the soon to be sold off state house?
‘
I think it might she be the one who had her personal details released to the media as pay-back for publicly criticising the government . . . oh, wait . . . it might be the one forced to work at McDonalds as in intern to gain work experience . . . oh, wait . . . she might actually be sitting on the waiting list for a hip operation . . .
but he doesn’t care, he just wanted PM on his CV and he has done that. He never had any integrity to start with, and now even less.