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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
Written By: - Date published: 12:02 pm, July 2nd, 2012 - 71 comments
So – what kind of person does well out of asset sales?…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, June 14th, 2012 - 34 comments
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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