john key

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The cost of asset sales

Written By: - Date published: 5:29 pm, July 24th, 2012 - 25 comments

Loyalty Scheme:   $360 million.
Brokerage Fees:   $90 million.
Advertising/PR:   $30 million.
Iwi Settlements:   $unknown.
Lost Revenue:   $100 million/year.

Everyone hears what they want to hear

Written By: - Date published: 9:41 am, July 23rd, 2012 - 7 comments

Key has been giving different messages on the water rights issue to the Maori Party and to the wider public. No one knows what, if anything, his “promises” mean. Why isn’t the Maori Party (which has been burned before) seeking urgent clarification?

True lies

Written By: - Date published: 7:42 am, July 23rd, 2012 - 207 comments

On Breakfast just now, Petra Bagust asked John Key what’s so great for the economy about listing our assets on the stockmarket. A good question. In his answer, Key tried to make out that floating these companies on the stockmarket would give them more cash to grow. But not a cent of the revenue will go to the companies and Key knows it.

Two face

Written By: - Date published: 7:28 am, July 20th, 2012 - 76 comments

What does Key’s promise mean?

Written By: - Date published: 6:11 pm, July 19th, 2012 - 49 comments

Key is already qualifying a promise he’s made on Maori water rights.  Does the promise mean anything at all?

Welded to National

Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, July 19th, 2012 - 41 comments

The meeting between Key and the Maori Party leaders last night reached it’s predictable conclusion.  From his point of view Key has played this brilliantly.

“Opportunistic”

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, July 18th, 2012 - 47 comments

I don’t know which is stranger, a currency-trading capitalist denigrating people for maximising their economic opportunities, or claims dating back to The Treaty being passed off as somehow superficial.

Key’s press release on exodus to Australia

Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, July 8th, 2012 - 29 comments

With news that there are now more Kiwis living in Australia than either Christchurch or Wellington, here’s “John Key’s” latest press release on the topic.

A quick question

Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, July 5th, 2012 - 197 comments

The Nats are going to terminate the benefits of those who fail or refuse drug tests. I have a question…

National has no intention of ever enforcing ETS

Written By: - Date published: 8:08 am, July 3rd, 2012 - 59 comments

As many of us expected, National has no intention of ever enforcing the ETS in the area where it makes the most difference to NZ emissions – agriculture.

Sale of the century

Written By: - Date published: 12:02 pm, July 2nd, 2012 - 71 comments

So – what kind of person does well out of asset sales?…

What did Key really know about Dotcom?

Written By: - Date published: 7:48 am, July 2nd, 2012 - 57 comments

We know that the Police overstepped their authority following their Hollywood wannabe raid on Dotcom’s home. They used invalid warrants to take property of Dotcom’s that they weren’t entitled to, and gave that data to the FBI. Now, we learn that Key’s office was involved in advising the Department of Labour on shutting down a leaked email.

Stealing Heritage – Scott free

Written By: - Date published: 1:44 pm, June 27th, 2012 - 9 comments

ImperatorFish: The Dog Has Eaten John Key’s Budget Surplus

Written By: - Date published: 5:34 pm, June 19th, 2012 - 4 comments

The right may talk up the virtues of self-responsibility, but when it comes to the failure of the Key government to achieve even modest targets, there’s always someone else to blame. It’s all Labour’s fault, or it’s all because of the earthquakes, or it’s all because of Europe.

Caption Contest

Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, June 19th, 2012 - 60 comments

Policy on the hoof

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, June 19th, 2012 - 26 comments

John Key wants to debate school league tables. Presumably he thinks that this will do the double whammy of getting middle class parents back on his side in the education debate, and distract from asset sales. But he’s not checked with his Minister, or the Ministry of Education, or presumably read any of the official advice about how damaging league tables would be.

Know when to fold ’em

Written By: - Date published: 7:29 am, June 19th, 2012 - 8 comments

Key’s ditched  the surplus target that was so important a month ago –  yet another casualty on the way to the brighter future. The Queen may have asked him why he didn’t see European contagion coming. Shearer is right – Europe is an excuse for a government that has run out of ideas. Labour does have a fresh approach – we need to hear more.

Peters smacks down Key

Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, June 17th, 2012 - 52 comments

John Key started preparing the ground to work with NZF, looking to forge a “Save Super” platform for 2014. But Winston Peters smacked him down hard.

Key on the Nation

Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, June 16th, 2012 - 93 comments

Well, the same old lines just aren’t working now. Maybe its a factor of having 3 journos interviewing him, but they are just rejecting Key’s spin outright – they know that the lines are fundamentally misleading, so they just brush them off and ask tougher questions. He’s getting his arse kicked on everything from schools to the economy. I predict this’ll be one of Key’s last long-format interviews.

Admitting that austerity has failed

Written By: - Date published: 8:10 am, June 16th, 2012 - 56 comments

Austerity has failed in both the UK and NZ.  But at least Cameron’s Conservatives have the wit to realise it, and the courage to act.

Can you jump a shark in that pool?

Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, June 14th, 2012 - 34 comments

The Nats’ succession problem

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, June 14th, 2012 - 58 comments

John Key’s days are numbered. His personal popularity is falling. His brand is tied to unpopular asset sales and a pokies for convention centre deal that is now subject to an Auditor-General investigation. He’s not winning the next election. So a change of leader is coming: pre-election or post. But who can succeed him? Parata? Collins? Joyce? They’re all shot.

SkyCity enquiry

Written By: - Date published: 1:56 pm, June 13th, 2012 - 13 comments

The Auditor-General has announced an enquiry into John Key’s SkyCity deal. The deal should now be put on hold while the enquiry goes ahead.

Trouble? No! Look at Nice Mr Key

Written By: - Date published: 4:05 pm, June 12th, 2012 - 26 comments

National have not had a great year, but the class size fiasco last week has raised the bar on their awful. Worse: the nice man Mr Shearer first raised their stupidity on class sizes, and their poll ratings have dropped noticeably. So it’s time to roll out their big gun again: a charm offensive from the nice man Mr Key.

What price an apology?

Written By: - Date published: 8:45 am, June 12th, 2012 - 23 comments

Parents and teachers are calling for Key to apologise over the stress and anxiety that Key’s government has caused them over the last 2 weeks. Want to guess how Key handled it?

The super disaster

Written By: - Date published: 7:09 am, June 12th, 2012 - 191 comments

On Superannuation Key is in a very strange position indeed, where keeping his word is doing him more harm than breaking it. It’s a disaster for the country.

Body of evidence

Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, June 11th, 2012 - 10 comments

Nats try and fail to inoculate Key from Budget mess

Written By: - Date published: 11:10 am, June 10th, 2012 - 64 comments

The Prime Minister chairs Cabinet, which signs the Budget off policy by policy. A competent Prime Minister would be intimately familiar with the major policy changes. So, it was very interesting to see Audrey Young’s ‘insider’ piece on the education debacle yesterday. Chock full of tidbits supplied by Murray McCully. All the blame sleeted home to Bill English and Hekia Parata. Crucially, John Key barely mentioned.

Caption contest

Written By: - Date published: 1:17 pm, June 9th, 2012 - 76 comments

The politics of reproduction

Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, June 3rd, 2012 - 236 comments

The Nats have a thoroughly unhealthy obsession with the politics of reproduction. They’re talking about “stopping ‘unfit’ parents reproducing”, but Paula Bennet let slip the real agenda months ago.

Class sizes don’t matter?

Written By: - Date published: 8:06 am, June 2nd, 2012 - 44 comments

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