flip-flop

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Key still hopping on Hobsonville

Written By: - Date published: 10:27 am, October 7th, 2008 - 22 comments

At the first Helensville candidates’ debate last night, John Key reversed his position on state housing once again. Despite using the years he lived in a state house as “a great marketing ploy”, Key called the plan to build state houses along with more up-market homes on the site of Hobsonville airbase “economic vandalism”.  Then he […]

National: for a more confused future

Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, September 12th, 2008 - 14 comments

On Sunday, John Key, apparently off-the-cuff, announced he would dismantle the Families Commission and give the money to church groups, who just happened to be the people he was speaking to at the time. Then, he had to speak to UnitedFuture Leader Peter Dunne. The Families Commission is his baby and Key will probably need […]

Key breaks flip-flop world record

Written By: - Date published: 2:29 pm, September 9th, 2008 - 68 comments

Can’t put it any better than Jafapete has: Seems that John Key has done it again. Announced policy off-the-cuff and back tracked later. TV3 reports that, speaking to an Auckland families forum yesterday, Key ‘veered away from a written speech appearing to announce in off the cuff remarks that National would axe the commission.’ ‘He […]

Williamson goes to ground

Written By: - Date published: 5:59 pm, August 25th, 2008 - 16 comments

From RNZ’s Checkpoint I hear they’ve been after Maurice Williamson all day to clarify what he said on Agenda yesterday (as discussed below). But he’s gone to ground and is not returning calls. Williamson may admire what they are doing in Australia but Gordon Campbell sounds a note of warning: Interesting that the National Party […]

Key demands we publish full quote

Written By: - Date published: 11:43 am, August 20th, 2008 - 53 comments

John Key called us to task in his interview with Wammo today: “every leftwing blogger out there has a field-day going on and on about the fact that Labour say I said climate change is a hoax…they should just get their facts right down at The Standard because the facts are I said ‘Kyoto is […]

08wire on Nats’ Kiwibank secret agenda

Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, August 6th, 2008 - Comments Off on 08wire on Nats’ Kiwibank secret agenda

08wire.org, your videos make me smile.

Flip-flops, it’s a matter of trust

Written By: - Date published: 6:12 am, July 31st, 2008 - 56 comments

I believe there are three core criteria on which a politician or party needs to be judged: (in no particular order) – policy, competency, trustworthiness – Do they have a good plan, are they capable of implementing such a plan, can we trust them to carry out the plan if we vote for them. National’s […]

The Ultimate Flip-Flop

Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, July 30th, 2008 - 6 comments

This straight from Public Address – Guest writer Simon Pound: John Key has announced the adoption of yet another flagship Labour policy having a female leader. In a one-page policy briefing released today he stated that under a National government he would undergo gender realignment to have what it takes to lead the Country. “I’ve […]

What was it about that Herald poll?

Written By: - Date published: 5:24 pm, July 29th, 2008 - 20 comments

Should Labour be worried about today’s poll in the Herald which contrary to other recent polls showed the gap between the parties rising? Colin Espiner doesn’t seem to think so, suggesting: I wouldn’t take much notice of the Herald DigiPoll. This one’s even worse than the last one. It was taken over THREE WEEKS and interviewed […]

Remarkably unambitious ECE policy

Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, July 11th, 2008 - 21 comments

Another one-page excuse for a policy from National, this one on early childhood education. After vehemently opposing 20Free, National would now keep it but not because it wants to, only because ‘thousands of parents are now using 20 Hours and we do not want to cause them uncertainty’. Gee, thanks, National. The headline change is […]

Key’s green mask slips

Written By: - Date published: 9:46 am, May 19th, 2008 - 33 comments

Last year John Key announced National’s ‘Blue-Green’ Strategy. It contained the first shadow of acknowledgment from National that climate change is a serious issue: a target to reduce greenhouse gas emission to 50% of 1990 levels by 2050. Of course, setting a target for a time when most of your MPs will be dead is […]

Two stories on crime in Christchurch

Written By: - Date published: 11:54 am, May 15th, 2008 - 8 comments

Christchurch hosted a public meeting on crime within the city last week. But the thing that caught my eye, despite the very laudable aim, was how National MP, Nicky Wagner, managed to present two contrasting opinions on the state of crime in the Garden City, in close succession: I do think the statistics are sometimes […]

Note to John: get a new lawyer

Written By: - Date published: 10:59 am, April 21st, 2008 - 18 comments

John Key: ‘ my lawyer actually does those things clearly [he] had the wrong information.’ That’s how Slippery John explained why legal documents showed him living at different addresses at the same time. For election purposes he had claimed to be living at his $1.1 million home in Waimauku in his electorate, but on documents […]

Flip-flopping at warp speed

Written By: - Date published: 3:13 pm, April 17th, 2008 - 31 comments

On Monday, I wrote ‘Stay tuned for National’s next assets policy, due out sometime next week.’ It seems I miscalculated. Here’s what Key had to say on asset sales today on newstalkzb: ‘I’m going to go into an election with a group of policies and those policies we will implement or not implement as the […]

It’s your fault I keep saying contradictory things

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, March 25th, 2008 - 9 comments

Regular readers will remember that one of John Key’s excuses for he ‘we would love to see wages drop‘ quote was that the reporter had misquoted him. Now, Key has once again shown a disturbing trait of attributing his own mistakes to others. When asked about the possibility of moving National’s tax cut programme forward […]

National still evasive over KiwiSaver plans

Written By: - Date published: 9:43 am, March 19th, 2008 - 17 comments

You do have to wonder sometimes what it takes to get a straight answer out of a National party MP. Having recently given Brian Connell a bollocking for being evasive on camera, Bill English has now pulled out a performance of his own. He was far more polite of course, and at no stage made […]

Slippery John: trainwreck on Morning Report

Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, March 6th, 2008 - 31 comments

Bill English must just be sitting there in his office cringing as he listens to interviews like these. Sean Plunket spoke to Slippery John this morning about his latest policy flip-flops. It was a trainwreck. Have a listen – the text below is just a short excerpt. powered by ODEO Presenter: Is your policy today […]

Key abandons Treaty settlement deadline

Written By: - Date published: 4:57 pm, March 5th, 2008 - 26 comments

Further to Dancer’s post below, this morning on Breakfast John Key claimed that National never had a deadline for settling Treaty claims and instead only had a deadline for lodging them. This was possum-in-the-headlights stuff, continuing an extraordinary run of gaffes from slippery Mr Key. Politely put, Key’s done a total rewrite of history. The […]

No deadline on Treaty claims – National

Written By: - Date published: 4:18 pm, March 5th, 2008 - 4 comments

Mr Key announced new National policy this morning. After a morning TV interview National now have no date to settle historic Treaty Claims: Presenter: National used to have a date, didn’t they? John Key: No, what they said was they wanted the claims lodged, and they’d like to see them cleared up by a certain […]

Playing politics

Written By: - Date published: 3:05 pm, March 5th, 2008 - 2 comments

From John Key’s State of the Nation speech in January: The Youth Court currently has the power to place young offenders in youth justice residential facilities for a period of up to three months.  Many are released after just two. Last year, long-overdue legislation was tabled to allow these sentences to extend to six months. […]

National’s history of rewriting history

Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, February 26th, 2008 - 16 comments

You think they’d learn. Wikiscanner reports that someone in Parliament has been busy – busy expunging potentially embarassing facts about a variety of MPs. This one’s about Allan Peachey. You might remember Allan from such debacles as the Peachey/Rich bulk funding controversy and also the little number above that he’d evidently rather history forgot – […]

KiwiSaver – what if…

Written By: - Date published: 4:56 pm, February 7th, 2008 - 25 comments

Kiwis are showing their canny side in the way we’ve been flocking to sign up to KiwiSaver – now over 400,000 strong and still growing. It’s another dead rat that John Key has swallowed to make National an electable brand but let’s not forget that in 1975 National abolished Labour’s universal superannuation scheme. Bryan Gaynor […]

National Party U-turn on student loans

Written By: - Date published: 4:18 pm, January 31st, 2008 - 84 comments

National have just backed down on their opposition to interest free student loans. Back in 2005 Key called this ‘a policy that tells young New Zealanders to go and borrow to the hilt What a cost to the country! What an unaffordable and irresponsible cost to the country! It is a sad day National members […]

Key’s flip-flops for sale on TradeMe

Written By: - Date published: 9:35 am, October 18th, 2007 - Comments Off on Key’s flip-flops for sale on TradeMe

The entry reads: These won’t be comfortable to wear or even be long-lasting but they do come with an interesting provenance. They are size 8. It has been claimed they were recovered from a rubbish bag collected from Parliament Buildings. Inquiries indicated that a practical jokester on National’s front bench carefully constructed them as a […]

Same old National Party

Written By: - Date published: 4:31 pm, August 27th, 2007 - 1 comment

As the National Party concentrated on its own political health with yet another policy u-turn inoculation, this time on the need for an airforce combat wing, Health Minister Pete Hodgson had some good news for the health of under-sixes.

Cheney shoots himself in the face

Written By: - Date published: 6:15 pm, August 22nd, 2007 - Comments Off on Cheney shoots himself in the face

Seems John Key’s not the only politician who’s had his previous statements on Iraq come back to bite him recently. Here’s Dick Cheney in 1994 explaining why the invasion and occupation of Iraq would not be the smartest course of action and would quickly become, in his own words, “a quagmire”. Interestingly, even in 2000 […]

Flip-flop on climate change

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, August 20th, 2007 - 3 comments

For those who asked for them here are the conflicting quotes from John on climate change. As Goff points out in the video below, Key’s now on record as flip-flopping on two of the biggest issues facing the world today: Iraq and climate change. Key proudly calls himself a “risk-taker”. It’s one thing to risk […]

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