john key
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Quote of the week
Written By: - Date published: 4:32 pm, June 6th, 2008 - 28 comments
On John Key’s visit to Waitara High School yesterday: Ms Gellen said Mr Key’s visit had been excellent and the students had got a lot from it. “They are now more aware of who he (Mr Key) is. “Some said they weren’t going to vote before, but now they are going to go away and have […]
National policy vacuum becoming a joke
Written By: - Date published: 11:14 am, June 6th, 2008 - 24 comments
A reader just alerted us to this. When John Key went missing in action on Sunrise what did the “Allstars” suggest he was up to? Watch to find out…
17-year-old disses Key on Bebo
Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, June 6th, 2008 - 28 comments
The Taranaki Daily News reports: National Party leader John Key was at Waitara High School, where he pushed his party’s plan to spend $1 billion on “super fast broadband”. This would allow pupils to access his Bebo and Facebook pages at a fraction of the speed, and download movies in seven seconds, he said. But […]
How much did Key pay for his seat?
Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, June 4th, 2008 - 85 comments
It’s funny the stories you hear when you’re out in the provinces. I was up in Auckland over the long weekend and came across someone who told me the story of how Key became involved in National. See, Key was never political growing up and certainly not strongly National. He can’t remember where he stood […]
What’s National’s real assets policy?
Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, June 3rd, 2008 - 18 comments
Isn’t this the one issue where we truly know what National will do? Didn’t John Key say ‘there will be no asset sales in the first term of a National Government (we’ll save that or the second term)’? Yes, he did. But that goes against the deepest of National principles and caused real disquiet about […]
Key: Vietnam War was “right thing to do”
Written By: - Date published: 11:12 am, May 29th, 2008 - 115 comments
Yesterday, the leaders of the parliamentary parties apologised to the veterans of the Vietnam War for the treatment they received both while fighting and on their return home. It was not these soldiers’ fault that their government deployed them in a disastrous and unjust war. Except, now John Key is saying the war and New […]
“pretty similar”
Written By: - Date published: 7:56 am, May 29th, 2008 - 60 comments
I noticed an interesting comment from Ferdinand in our Kiwisaver thread yesterday: I signed up to Kiwisaver based on the 4% employer contribution being rolled out. If National cap that at 1% then I’m out of pocket by about $75,000 in contributions alone. That got me thinking about that meaningless phrase John Key used to […]
Show us ya policy
Written By: - Date published: 3:57 pm, May 26th, 2008 - 32 comments
Steve posted this morning that even Granny Herald’s patience appears to be wearing thin waiting for National and Key to announce some policy detail: “National must get a move on… we need to hear some serious policy soon”. Turns out they’re not alone. Rod Oram (SST): …for it to be a genuine debate, National needs […]
Asking the second question
Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, May 24th, 2008 - 62 comments
Key’s best trick is to answer questions with impressive or technical sounding assertions that stop the line of questioning but don’t actually tell us anything. When he does that, interviewers need to push him to explain himself. Here’s a few paraphrased examples from the last couple of week: Q. ‘What don’t you like about the […]
The Ministry of National Affairs
Written By: - Date published: 2:05 pm, May 23rd, 2008 - 70 comments
Here’s a good ten minutes from the middle of Winston’s post budget address yesterday. The highlight is around four minutes in, on National’s burgeoning bureaucracy: Did you know that John Key himself in his Wellington parliamentary office employs has 36 people?… they cost the taxpayer, every year… over seven million dollars… Teams of PR people and spin doctors […]
Where’s the beef John?
Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, May 23rd, 2008 - 5 comments
Key kicks off this Close Up interview by trying to dampen down rising expectations of National’s tax package and make himself some wiggle room by emphasising that his comments from earlier in the week about tax cuts “north of $50” relate to voter expectations rather than what National may eventually be able to deliver. Presumably […]
“As slippery as a snake in wet grass”
Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, May 23rd, 2008 - 61 comments
John Campbell interviews John Key on the budget, refusing to let him get away with merely repeating his focus-grouped lines. At about the 3 minute mark Campbell challenges Key’s evasiveness directly: “I think you are as slippery as a snake in wet grass”. It’s not just the media that are starting to get frustrated with […]
National still won’t say what they’d do
Written By: - Date published: 2:41 pm, May 21st, 2008 - 9 comments
Seemingly content to coast along on the “time for a change” sentiment, the National Party are still refusing to offer any substantive details in major policy areas: government debt, work rights and retirement savings. English ended up sounding like a broken record on Agenda a few days back. His stock answer was ‘I can’t tell […]
Key lacks leadership on climate change
Written By: - Date published: 5:02 pm, May 19th, 2008 - 26 comments
National has pulled its support for the emissions trading scheme which is intended to set limits on the emission of greenhouse gases and penalise polluters. This is the latest in a long line of Key’s shifting positions on climate change. First climate change was a “complete and utter hoax”. Then as the environmental mood gained momentum […]
Getting the facts straight
Written By: - Date published: 11:57 am, May 19th, 2008 - 27 comments
When asked on Morning Report (MP3 link) today why National was bringing up the issue of MMP now, Key remarked: “[the public] were promised a referendum on MMP”. He’s wrong. Nigel Robert, Professor of Political Science at Victoria University points out: “A referendum wasn’t promised previously. The role of Parliament after MMP was introduced was […]
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 […]
California lifts gay marriage ban
Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, May 17th, 2008 - 41 comments
California’s top court has ruled that a state law banning marriage between same-sex couples is unconstitutional, accrording to a BBC report. The state’s Supreme Court said the “right to form a family relationship” applied to all Californians regardless of sexuality. I wonder if this ruling will re-ignite debate on the status of relationships here in […]
Bill Ralston: independent commentator?
Written By: - Date published: 2:10 pm, May 16th, 2008 - 43 comments
If you’ve been reading Bill Ralston’s columns in the Herald on Sunday over the last few months you’ll have noticed how they’ve started to read more and more like long-form National Party press releases. To date I’d put it down to pure laziness – after all, why would you bother coming up with an original […]
TVNZ and the Nats
Written By: - Date published: 5:05 pm, May 13th, 2008 - 36 comments
As Paul Henry continues his party political broadcasts for the National Party on Breakfast TV, a curious coincidence of timing occured on Sunday. John Key devoted part of his speech to a National regional conference to the Nats plans on how to deal with “P”. The rest of the speech was pretty much a repeat of the one he […]
Key’s performance in the House embarrassing
Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, May 13th, 2008 - 70 comments
I’ve just watched the first Question Time in 3 weeks. After 3 weeks’ recess and lots of potentially juicy material to use, here I was expecting the Leader of Nats to come down to the House and stick the knife into Labour. But instead… what we got was a extraordinarily limp performance by John Key. […]
Interview the Leaders VIII: NZ First
Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, May 13th, 2008 - 9 comments
We’ve chosen the questions for John Key in the seventh installment of our “Interview the Leaders” series. The first question remains the same, as for all leaders: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? For the others we’ve gone with Darryl’s question: Under the last National government most people’s wages fell […]
Mythbusting: ‘Book value’ & ‘over the odds’
Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, May 12th, 2008 - 32 comments
In an attempt to find a non-ideological ground to justify opposing the Government’s buyback of the rail system, John Key and others have been claiming that the $665 million price-tag is ‘over the odds’ and $200 million in excess of Toll’s ‘book value’ for the assets bought. What do these two terms mean and what […]
Get your questions in for Key
Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, May 8th, 2008 - Comments Off on Get your questions in for Key
Our ‘Interview the Leaders‘ series is going well and this week it’s your chance to submit questions to the man who wants you to want him to be your next Prime Minister. It’s been an interesting week for Key as, once again, a tentative venture into the land of substantive policy saw him come out […]
It’s alright when he does it
Written By: - Date published: 2:12 pm, May 7th, 2008 - 64 comments
A reader sent us this letter to the Herald’s editor, which the Herald has refused to print. When the government moved to block the sale of Auckland Airport to the Canadian Pension Fund, the Herald’s editorial proclaimed that anyone who didn’t want foreign ownership of our strategic assets was xenophobic. Yesterday, John Key played the […]
How Boris won London by not being Boris
Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, May 6th, 2008 - 13 comments
Tory candidate Boris Johnson has triumphed in the mayoral race for London in a campaign masterminded by the Australian political tactician Lynton Crosby. The Sydney Morning Herald has the story: Brought in at the end of last year, the mysterious Crosby – “you know I don’t do interviews”, he responded to an email from the […]
Interview the Leaders VII: National
Written By: - Date published: 3:15 pm, May 5th, 2008 - 123 comments
The Maori Party has asked for an extension on the replies for Tariana Turia and we’re happy to oblige. In the meantime, here are the questions to United Future’s Peter Dunne that we chose from your suggestions. The general question remains: Of which of your achievements in politics are you most proud? For the two […]
Key: National’s great white hype
Written By: - Date published: 1:39 pm, May 5th, 2008 - 21 comments
Tom Frewen’s latest column seems to have somehow slipped through the usually rigourous editorial process at the NBR. The sidebar reads: “John Key’s lyrics sound like the gobbledygook of Bushisms”. “Yeah, I mean look, the truth is, with the greatest respect to Rodney, he doesn’t understand the telecommunications sector very well if he can’t sort […]
Mission Accomplished
Written By: - Date published: 11:54 am, May 1st, 2008 - 33 comments
Today is the fifth anniversary of Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech in which he stated that “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended”. To mark the date Moveon.org have released the following ad, intended to remind the public that as McCain himself said, “no one has supported President Bush on Iraq more” than he has. […]
National on personal attacks
Written By: - Date published: 2:24 pm, April 29th, 2008 - 13 comments
Greenwoman just flicked us this:
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