john key
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Where’s Key?
Written By: - Date published: 11:39 am, November 30th, 2009 - 17 comments
Brash’s taskforce releases its report today. Where’s Key? CHOGM ended yesterday but he’s not back until Wednesday. Catching Aussie by 2025 is meant to be his big vision. He can’t get them to wait a couple of days or get back quicker? We know this serious stuff isn’t really Key’s thing. But the fact that […]
Nats’ backers tire of do-nothing Key
Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, November 28th, 2009 - 44 comments
Reading Fran O’Sullivan is always interesting because she provides an insight into the thinking of the business elite who fund National, and who expect it to govern for them. A lot of her article today is devoted to calling for radical reforms that obviously aren’t politically viable for Key to do, but one paragraph in particular stood […]
Everybody else is going, so why can’t we?
Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, November 28th, 2009 - 16 comments
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon have called on world leaders to attend the Copenhagen talks on the new climate change treaty. President Obama will be attending as will the leaders of most major countries. Yet John Key still says he almost certainly won’t go, even after New Zealanders raised the money […]
Key’s flagship policy now his joke
Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, November 23rd, 2009 - 27 comments
Anyone with a brain has always known Key’s cycleway is a joke. The sick thing is he’s now using it as a punchline himself: Barack Obama’s planned White House Job Summit struck a note with our own PM when he heard about it during the Singapore Apec meeting. “Maybe he’ll do a national cycleway,” John […]
Another Key foot in mouth
Written By: - Date published: 7:17 am, November 23rd, 2009 - 39 comments
John Key sure is a class act. Not. Latest example*: Stadium funds: We’re not Indian-givers, says Key Prime Minister John Key yesterday said the Government was unlikely to ask for its $15 million back if the Forsyth Barr Stadium is not finished in time for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. … The issue of whether […]
Goff gets it right, as Key goes off the rails
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, November 22nd, 2009 - 24 comments
Phil Goff has managed to defy the critics and make himself relevant. His speech on ACC and his criticisms of National’s backroom deals with the Maori Party got praise and draw a contrast between Labour and Key’s government, with Labour on the right side of popular opinion. It’s a nice piece of timing too. The […]
Key opens rich mates’ marina, slaps local Maori
Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, November 22nd, 2009 - 45 comments
Unbelievable. John Key has opened the environmentally destructive Whangamata Marina. This was a battle between rich property developers, against the serious concerns of local Maori, surfers, and environmentalists. Key has come down firmly on the side of his rich mates. But not only that, he’s promised more marinas! The building of marinas along popular coastal areas […]
Trade trumps human rights for Key
Written By: - Date published: 9:33 pm, November 21st, 2009 - 15 comments
What a strange little editorial in the Herald today. It’s a typical spin piece that tries to frame John Key’s shoddy behaviour in not meeting the Dalai Lama, despite his promise that he would, as a good thing. The title shows just how willing, desperate even, some are to interpret everything Key does positively – “At […]
A whole lotta nothing
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, November 20th, 2009 - 14 comments
In a speech to National Party members yesterday John Key read out a list of everything the government has done in the last year. Talk about weak, when the public disgruntlement with this do-nothing govenment has reached a level where they’re resorting to ‘not even, we’ve done heaps’. Audrey Young reports the list ran to […]
970 words of hollow platitudes. How ambitious.
Written By: - Date published: 11:21 am, November 19th, 2009 - 18 comments
Classic, I was just saying yesterday that Key is probably concerned about focus testing turning up ‘do-nothing’, ‘weak’ and ‘visionless’ memes and today he’s got a little puff piece in the Dominion Post that purports to lay out his “vision”. Of course like every other missive from the great leader this one says exactly nothing. […]
Key needs to face the facts
Written By: - Date published: 11:03 am, November 18th, 2009 - 24 comments
Nice Mr Key may be feeling the strain a bit. He’s starting to sound quite snippy: Meanwhile, Key has also slammed Treasury predictions that the proposed changes to the ETS would add $50 billion to the price tag of the scheme. “The numbers from Treasury are nonsense. Treasury can’t tell us what the deficit is […]
Key to rich mates: NZ for sale
Written By: - Date published: 11:38 am, November 17th, 2009 - 33 comments
John Key’s residency for the rich scheme has attracted the interest of 12,000 people thus far. Yes, NZ residency is for sale at the measly investment of NZ$500,000 and a few low-paid jobs. The Herald notes: Thousands of wealthy foreigners are lining up to move here, just weeks out from the introduction of business migration […]
Kiwis will continue to subsidise PM’s rich mates
Written By: - Date published: 1:06 pm, November 16th, 2009 - 2 comments
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has released its report on John Key’s Emissions Trading Scheme. ACT, Labour, and the Greens refused to support the changes which will see taxpayers subsidising big business. We were unable to reach agreement on whether to recommend that the Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill be passed, because of members’ […]
Key’s loose government
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, November 16th, 2009 - 12 comments
Over the weekend r0b reckoned the shambles of the Key government would start to really hurt. I was sceptical. Winning the next election for the left is going to bloody hard. But Key’s cracks are showing. As the ever thoughtful Colin James noted in his Dom Post column this morning (currently offline): Too many distractions […]
Light at the end of the tunnel
Written By: - Date published: 6:56 am, November 16th, 2009 - 21 comments
We’ve been in the tunnel of love too long. (You youngsters can go look it up.) The media’s affair with our personable but apparently useless PM has been a trying time for we lefties. But I think there are glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel. Those glimmers come in the form of several […]
Still a trader at heart… gambling with Kiwi lives
Written By: - Date published: 1:38 pm, November 14th, 2009 - 12 comments
Here is one excellent article from Tracey Barnett in the Weekend Herald … Admit it: John Key’s most memorable moment in one year of office was seeing him on the stage of The David Letterman Show, smiling like somebody’s brother-in-law you’d forgotten you went to school with. … It’s as if we ordered a competent […]
Stupid stupid stupid
Written By: - Date published: 3:50 pm, November 12th, 2009 - 13 comments
Our government is stupid. Sorry, it’s the only conclusion I can draw. Our government is made up of confused, muddled thinkers incapable of planning further ahead than lunchtime. It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic. National have decided to “scrap the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy and stop work on vehicle fuel efficiency […]
Key’s hand-washing powers Phil
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, November 11th, 2009 - 30 comments
I don’t know if the two are related but this is my theory du jour. John Key keeps washing his hands of both his own ministers and MPs and his coalition partners’ MPs. It seems like no misbehaviour, from rorts to racism can make a dent in Mr Easy Going. Meanwhile, Phil Goff is having […]
Rules don’t apply to Key’s ministers
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, November 11th, 2009 - 38 comments
Another day, another minister breaking the rules. On the Dental Artistry website, Rodney Hide has written: ‘Thanks for the fantastic job! I was so sick of having my teeth break and wear away, and with the job I’m in it’s important to look presentable. I didn’t do this lightly, but it’s the best thing I’ve […]
‘Let’s wait & see’ – do-nothing PM
Written By: - Date published: 8:49 pm, November 8th, 2009 - 27 comments
If you think that John Key gets a lot of soft coverage, John Armstrong explained why yesterday: Key’s soaring popularity has made him virtually untouchable Now, you and I might see a certain circularity to that logic – after all, anyone given constantly positive coverage is going to be popular. Thankfully, some journalists choose to […]
Not walking the talk
Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, November 8th, 2009 - 18 comments
I’m not against Prime Ministers making limited use of Airforce aircraft when necessary – when commercial flights or (better) surface travel aren’t practical. It’s cheaper and more efficient than having dedicated aircraft that would hardly ever be used. But Key using two Iroquois, each flying for eight hours, just so he could get from Blenheim to Kiakoura […]
Hide slammed for telling the truth on Key
Written By: - Date published: 4:52 pm, November 7th, 2009 - 33 comments
Some pretty damning pieces on on Hide today from John Armstrong, Tracy Watkins, and Fran O’Sullivan. They compare him to Winston Peters and say he ought to apologise to various groups for his troughing and his comments that John Key “doesn’t do anything”. What I find fascinating, though, is that a senior and powerful minister gave his […]
Hone to leave Maori Party?
Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, November 7th, 2009 - 82 comments
The Dom Post reports that Hone Harawira is considering leaving the Maori Party. Hone told the Dom this before Hone’s offensive email hit the media later in the week. Firebrand Maori Party MP Hone Harawira under attack for an explosive email says he could quit at the next election over his party’s support for National. […]
A tale of two Johns
Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, November 6th, 2009 - 12 comments
We were offered two very different views of John Key PM yesterday. The first by a pair of love-struck journalists. We’ll start with them. Let’s have a big hand for Garth George folks! Garth George: We should all salute our wonderful PM It comes as no surprise that John Key and National remain top of […]
Over-promise, under-deliver
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, November 6th, 2009 - 5 comments
If there’s been a motto of this government, it’s the one above. We’ve been promised the world – tax cuts, better public services, higher wages, more growth, less regulation, lower crime, better education, lower carbon emissions – and none of it has been delivered or looks likely to be delivered at any time by this […]
Key is weak
Written By: - Date published: 11:50 am, November 5th, 2009 - 100 comments
Let me start by saying I understand that Key is loved for his laid-back common touch, I don’t think it makes for good governance but I realise it makes for a good political product. However there’s a big difference between laid-back and weak and letting Rodney Hide spit on him in public only to claim […]
Key “doesn’t do anything” – Hide
Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, November 5th, 2009 - 45 comments
It took a few cocktails to loosen Bill English’s tongue when he thought he was among friends. Rodney Hide just needed his coco pops. At his highly dubious ministerial function/ACT fundraiser breakfast*, Hide told his table that John Key “doesn’t do anything”. The only ‘achievement’ by Key that Hide could identify was the cycleway, which, […]
A weak leader
Written By: - Date published: 2:32 pm, November 3rd, 2009 - 16 comments
John Key is a weak leader. Currently popular (he’s such a “nice guy” you know) – but weak. Like a school teacher who has lost the respect of their pupils, Key has lost control over his MPs. And like naughty kids, Key’s MPs are starting to run wild. The problem is a lack of accountability. […]
The slippery standards of Mr Key
Written By: - Date published: 9:23 am, November 3rd, 2009 - 21 comments
Yesterday, John Key cleverly tried to reframe his ministers’ failure to obey his standards on use of perks: “You don’t want 120 Members of Parliament who have the financial independence to be able to make the financial decisions that I make. “It wouldn’t be the House of Representatives, we need people from all walks of […]
Key OK with ministers’ backdoor perk
Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, October 30th, 2009 - 26 comments
I’m sure you noticed Hide’s latest shenanigans – getting his partner taxpayer subsidised international flights despite Key’s directive not to. Key (surprise, surprise) is ‘comfortable’ with this because Hide used Parliamentary not Ministerial funds. Hide was taking a jaunt around London and Toronto to see other ‘Supercities’ close-up (unfortunately, he ignored the lessons). It was a ministerial trip but we paid […]
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