john key

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It’s who you know

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 6:02 pm, August 4th, 2011 - 174 comments

Who cares whether or not the SIS briefed Phil Goff over whether or not some Israelis were Mossad? What does interest me it this: Secretive SIS denied Fairfax a copy of the briefing paper on the non-agents. Days later it magics up a copy of this classified paper for Nat muckraker Cameron Slater. Who’s the SIS’s minister again? Oh yeah, John Key. Updated

Key’s own goal on poverty

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:09 am, August 3rd, 2011 - 56 comments

A bad mistake by John Key in the House yesterday. Phil Goff asked him about the gap between rich and poor. Key cited a new report on falling inequality. But he should have read the report properly. It credits Labour policies for driving down poverty and inequality.

Open debate

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 5:49 pm, August 2nd, 2011 - 129 comments

Key has refused to include the leaders of minor parties in TV3 debates, and Goff has agreed to debate one on one. Another step towards “presidential” style politics that does not serve our country well.

Let it out

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:07 am, August 1st, 2011 - 139 comments

The polls show that New Zealanders, quite rightly, prefer the policies of the Left, such as capital gains tax, over National/ACT’s ‘plan’ to hock off our assets. But the majority still seem to favour returning a Key-led (and Key’s the, um, key) government, even if they won’t like what it does. What the Left needs is Goff to build personal trust with the people.

Key has cried wolf too often

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:06 am, July 13th, 2011 - 98 comments

Key used to get away with spouting whatever kind of nonsense he liked. Not any more. His hysterical scaremongering on the subject of capital gains tax seems to have been a step too far. The teflon is long gone, and Key has cried wolf too often.

Implosion-watch

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:49 am, July 12th, 2011 - 79 comments

Last night, two ministers went head to head calling each other racists but it looked more like two old hobos fighting over a tin of beans. Pathetic, really. Meanwhile, Key has sided with Brash and dismissed the offense many Kiwis feel over the ads by saying he doesn’t “give a toss” about ACT’s racist ads.

When will Key rule out working with Brash?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:44 am, July 11th, 2011 - 73 comments

ACT adman John Ansell has resigned in the fallout from the race-baiting ad he designed for ACT, which Brash proudly endorsed. The Maori Party has effectively ruled out working with ACT. Isn’t it time for John Key to do the same? He cannot avoid responsibility. ACT lives or dies at his word. If National doesn’t try to win Epsom, that is an endorsement of Brash’s racism.

$22 Billion minutiae

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:00 pm, July 6th, 2011 - 131 comments

There can’t be many Kiwis who don’t know about the severity of the leaky homes crisis. Or can there? Oh don’t worry, he’s only the PM after all…

lprent: pushed this up the page again now that the program has aired.

Nats block pay equity bill

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 2:33 pm, July 6th, 2011 - 11 comments

The Nats are all in favour of pay equity for women. Or so they say. But their actions speak louder than their words.

Bring the SAS home

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:16 pm, July 5th, 2011 - 49 comments

First, Key denies the SAS were in the Kabul hotel gunfight. Then, media reveals they were there and were injured. Key admits that but denies it was friendly fire. Now, media says SAS got an apology. Key ‘can’t rule out’ friendly fire and is launching an investigation. Goff says its time for the SAS to leave Afghanistan. He’s right.

Questions mount over Nats’ red zone plan

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:04 am, June 27th, 2011 - 30 comments

Brownlee has known for months about the fishhooks in the red-zone buyout plan. Incredibly, he has done nothing to address them. The rules of the bailout package aren’t even written. It was rushed out unfinished for political reasons. How can it take so long to write these simple rules? Only explanation is a lazy, useless, incompetent minister.

In other news

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 8:59 am, June 25th, 2011 - 14 comments

The spotlight was on Christchurch last week, and will be on Te Tai Tokerau over the weekend. Lots of stories are slipping by under the radar. But here are a couple of pieces that deserve further comment.

Schrödinger’s Prime Minister

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 2:13 pm, June 24th, 2011 - 5 comments

No Right Turn on John Key’s confusion over Pike River. The flip flopping PM at his finest.

That’s it?

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:22 pm, June 24th, 2011 - 10 comments

Amazing what political pressure can do. Christchurch package was clearly put together in the space of a couple of days. Buy-out at GV the obvious basic solution but will see many out of pocket. Option 2 is an admission of that but only open to some. None of the fish-hooks have been worked out. What’s Gerry been doing all this time?

Whenever you’re ready, John

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:57 am, June 21st, 2011 - 53 comments

Gerry Brownlee says an announcement on Christchurch’s land will be made “very, very soon” but testily refuses to give a date, or even a real timeframe. I have a sinking feeling this is all a PR exercise. Just as Brownlee has got everyone really agitated, that Nice Man Mr Key will unveil the information. When it fits into his diary, of course.

Key’s Midas touch

Written By: r0b - Date published: 5:08 pm, June 11th, 2011 - 17 comments

John Armstrong reckons Key has the “Midas touch”. Ahh, no. Or at least, not in the sense that John meant…

Blame Goff?

Written By: r0b - Date published: 4:14 pm, June 10th, 2011 - 61 comments

There are far more similarities than differences in the Hughes / Goff and Worth / Key affairs, but that doesn’t stop the Right trying to rewrite history and blame Goff!

NZ deserves better than budget lies

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 10:34 am, June 10th, 2011 - 80 comments

The Budget is unravelling at a startling rate of knots. Bill English is floundering to explain his dodgy asset sales numbers that count the benefits but not the costs. Now, a senior minister has admitted that John Key’s claim that “there are 170,000 new jobs being created as a result of this Budget” is a lie. We actually really do deserve better than this.

Nats testing the waters on eugenics

Written By: r0b - Date published: 8:50 am, June 7th, 2011 - 217 comments

John Key “thinks” that parents on the DPB are “breeding for a business”. Now his government is testing the waters for a eugenics program, to single out these undesirables and forcibly control their fertility.

Celebrity PM withdraws endorsement

Written By: r0b - Date published: 8:05 am, June 5th, 2011 - 11 comments

Following the news that “Celebrities who make false statements while endorsing finance companies could now face jail or fines up to $1 million”, we at The Standard have received the following important document, leaked by an internal National Party source…

Leader repays chopper flights

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 8:42 am, June 3rd, 2011 - 13 comments

After intense criticism for using government-owned helicopters for personal trips, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has reimbursed the state for the cost of the flights. I look forward to John Key following Christie’s lead and repaying us for his flights to watch the V8s in Hamilton.

Tell Key to keep Pharmac

Written By: r0b - Date published: 7:25 am, June 2nd, 2011 - 35 comments

Like the ACC, Pharmac is a Kiwi institution that delivers benefits to everyone at a lower cost than other countries. National has got ACC on the butcher’s block. We must make sure that Pharmac doesn’t follow.

John Key: Evidence please!

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 6:17 am, June 2nd, 2011 - 55 comments

John Key prefers his gut to real evidence, and it means that the policies he is implementing aren’t the ones that are best for our country.
Also: Steven Joyce & the Rail Loop.

Rearranging the deck chairs

Written By: r0b - Date published: 6:10 am, June 1st, 2011 - 41 comments

Renaming, merging and splitting agencies is what a government does when it wants to look busy but has no ideas.

Hard to believe it has only taken two and a half years for National to get to this point.

Key: making shit up

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 4:23 pm, May 26th, 2011 - 41 comments

John Key just rumbles on from one lame excuse to the next on the ETS. First bringing farmers in was going to raise dairy prices, now he’s making other claims that don’t stack up.

Caption contest

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 1:10 pm, May 26th, 2011 - 58 comments

Hansen calls for Key to lead on climate change

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 8:32 pm, May 25th, 2011 - 71 comments

Visionary climate change scientist James Hansen has written an open letter to John Key.

Disgraceful

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 9:59 am, May 24th, 2011 - 55 comments

“The worst display from a Prime Minister since the schnapps election” – that’s what a journo said about Key the other day. No, it wasn’t about him being a multi-millionaire who gave himself tens of thousands of tax cuts opposing a fair wage increase for the lowest paid workers. It was this disgraceful behaviour on Budget Day. Watch.