john key
Categories under john key
- No categories
Key, the Kiwi Ken
Written By: - Date published: 2:39 pm, March 20th, 2008 - 70 comments
For harmonious holiday gatherings of family and friends it’s sometimes said that the topics of religion and politics are best avoided. At least one among us has nothing to worry about however. As with his politics, it turns out that when Slippery John talks religion he’ll be whoever you want him to be. Agnostic John […]
‘Try the dead rat, it’s delicious’
Written By: - Date published: 1:18 pm, March 20th, 2008 - 18 comments
Hat tip: Chris S in the comments.
Obama vs Key
Written By: - Date published: 11:34 am, March 20th, 2008 - 21 comments
With Barack Obama doing so well in the Democrat primaries and being seen as the candidate of change, National wants to paint John Key as the kiwi Obama. And some in the media have lapped it up pointing to such amazing similarities as: ‘they were both born in 1961!’, ‘they both have two children!’, ‘they’re […]
They know their man
Written By: - Date published: 11:04 am, March 18th, 2008 - 6 comments
This week’s NBR editorial, titled “Smarten up, John Key”, frets that Key keeps showing himself to be a slippery, policy lightweight (can’t have people seeing that side of him until the election is safely won). They have three recommendations for how Key can smarten up: ‘First, is to keep his mouth shut when asked questions […]
The Key Problem
Written By: - Date published: 1:23 pm, March 16th, 2008 - 8 comments
The somewhat irregular and frequently misguided Chris Trotter occasionally hits it on-the-head. Today’s Sunday Star Times has Trotter running over John Key’s inability to take the heat when it comes to hard questioning. And he further notes that National will be concerned that their man will not stand up to the debates later in the […]
Key to scrap research fund
Written By: - Date published: 5:17 pm, March 12th, 2008 - 23 comments
From Radio NZ: National says it will scrap a major new research and development fund for the pastoral and food industries if it becomes the Government at this year’s election. Party leader John Key has criticised the fund as a “gimmick” and insists only the interest earned on the fund will be spent on research. […]
National confirms Landcorp would be sold (?)
Written By: - Date published: 4:46 pm, March 12th, 2008 - 22 comments
We have an interesting mixed message (once again) from National on asset sales. David Carter is quoted in the NZ Farmers Weekly as saying: David Carter: “As Minister of Agriculture I would sell Landcorp. I don’t see taxpayer money best invested in farms” (10 March, 2008). However after the example was raised in Parliament today […]
Slippery John in search of a hot-button
Written By: - Date published: 2:46 pm, March 12th, 2008 - 15 comments
To follow on from Steve’s post earlier today, it looks like National’s focus groups have thrown them up another hot-button issue – Key has alliteratively labeled this the “ballooning bureaucracy”. Back in December we posted on him effectively saying he was all for sacking prison and parole staff as well as the people who administer […]
Which jobs would Key cut?
Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, March 12th, 2008 - 15 comments
It’s hard to get a straight answer out of John Key, so this is probably an exercise in futility, but Key’s announcement that National would not increase the size of the core public service raises some questions that need asking. So, Mr Key: Saying you would ‘get more value’ from the core public service isn’t a policy, […]
Key’s Australian excuse
Written By: - Date published: 3:27 pm, March 8th, 2008 - 45 comments
On the 20th of December, John Key was reported in the Bay Report as saying “we would love to see wages drop” while talking to a Kerikeri businesswoman. The story broke nationally three weeks ago and Key offered several, conflicting explanations – he was joking, he was misquoted, he was talking about Australia. The Bay Report stood […]
Political interference at APN
Written By: - Date published: 11:39 pm, March 6th, 2008 - 38 comments
Last night we published a tip-off saying the New Zealand Herald planned to report that its APN stable-mate the Bay Report would be correcting its story where John Key said ‘we would love to see wages drop.’ That story was published by the Herald this morning, hours before the Bay Report had even gone to […]
Slippery John: trainwreck on Morning Report
Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, March 6th, 2008 - 31 comments
Bill English must just be sitting there in his office cringing as he listens to interviews like these. Sean Plunket spoke to Slippery John this morning about his latest policy flip-flops. It was a trainwreck. Have a listen – the text below is just a short excerpt. powered by ODEO Presenter: Is your policy today […]
Key unspun
Written By: - Date published: 10:16 am, March 6th, 2008 - 5 comments
John Key is clearly missing Kevin Taylor, his chief spin doctor. When Taylor is around, Key is ‘Mr Teflon’ but, with Taylor on holiday at the moment, we have seen the real Key: uninformed, incoherent, inconsistent, ‘Slippery John’. John Key, it must be remembered, is a media creation, a creature of pure spin, whose job […]
Some questions
Written By: - Date published: 9:51 pm, March 5th, 2008 - 57 comments
Today in Parliament Bill English made a very interesting comment which, if true, raises some very concerning questions about either his own honesty or the editorial integrity of APN, publishers of the New Zealand Herald. Referring to a quip from Michael Cullen about John Key’s statement that ‘we would love to see wages drop‘, English […]
Hitting a nerve
Written By: - Date published: 6:53 pm, March 5th, 2008 - 22 comments
In this afternoon’s debate Gerry Brownlee tried to have the word “slippery” ruled unparliamentary in relation to John Key. Proof, if any were needed, that Cullen had hit a nerve perhaps? Also interesting to see John Key leading off General Debate in the House – the Nats have done this before when Key’s been in […]
Key abandons Treaty settlement deadline
Written By: - Date published: 4:57 pm, March 5th, 2008 - 26 comments
Further to Dancer’s post below, this morning on Breakfast John Key claimed that National never had a deadline for settling Treaty claims and instead only had a deadline for lodging them. This was possum-in-the-headlights stuff, continuing an extraordinary run of gaffes from slippery Mr Key. Politely put, Key’s done a total rewrite of history. The […]
No deadline on Treaty claims – National
Written By: - Date published: 4:18 pm, March 5th, 2008 - 4 comments
Mr Key announced new National policy this morning. After a morning TV interview National now have no date to settle historic Treaty Claims: Presenter: National used to have a date, didn’t they? John Key: No, what they said was they wanted the claims lodged, and they’d like to see them cleared up by a certain […]
Key caught out
Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, March 5th, 2008 - 22 comments
The government’s move to strengthen the Overseas Investment Act on Monday was met with predictable criticism from the ‘markets first, people second’ brigade. National Deputy Leader Bill ‘Privatise ‘em all’ English came out quickly on the side of big foreign money against New Zealand control of vital assets. But Bill’s supposed leader, John Key, didn’t […]
Did Key try to get ‘wage drop’ journalist sacked?
Written By: - Date published: 5:56 pm, March 4th, 2008 - 53 comments
Michael Cullen made an interesting remark in the House today in response to a question on John Key’s statement that he “would love to see wages drop“. Here’s what Cullen said: I think they would be appalled to learn that the Leader of the Opposition proposed that New Zealand wages should drop, then tried to […]
Key backs the underdog
Written By: - Date published: 1:39 pm, March 4th, 2008 - 25 comments
The latest Newsroom story [subscription only] about the Government’s move to protect Auckland International Airport from sale to the Canadian Pension Fund reports Labour is taking National to task on the issue of their support. Prime Minister Helen Clark is challenging National to state its position on strategic assets sales after the Government stepped in […]
How would Key make wages drop?
Written By: - Date published: 10:01 pm, February 28th, 2008 - 51 comments
Having read our coverage of John Key’s ‘we would love to see wages drop‘ line my brother asked ‘but how can a government make wages drop?’ The answer is obvious to those of us who know about this kind of stuff but my brother’s question, along with Colin Espiner’s naïve statement that ‘[a PM] has […]
For the record
Written By: - Date published: 2:58 pm, February 28th, 2008 - 103 comments
Like most of his policy positions John Key’s story on his comment “we would love to see wages drop” just keeps on changing. First he was “misrepresented”, then his comment was “lighthearted”, and now he’s claiming he never said it. Which is it John? In an interview today with Mickey Havoc, Key now denies ever […]
What’s the future of Working for Families?
Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, February 28th, 2008 - 13 comments
One consquence of the expectations around tax cuts is an examination of some of the policies already have in place – Working for Families for example. This was the topic of a recent article from Ruth Laugesen in the Sunday Star Times. “Coopers chairman John Shewan said that under Working for Families, many households effectively […]
Rod Oram: Insight into 2008
Written By: - Date published: 11:31 am, February 26th, 2008 - 6 comments
For those who are looking to the Beehive to bring some single minded focus to the current situation Labour finds themselves in, this article from Rod Oram at the begining of the month reads like a good starting point (SSTimes, 3 Feb 2008). He raises what the challenges for Labour are: If it wants to […]
Key’s shameful attack on journalist
Written By: - Date published: 10:01 am, February 26th, 2008 - 81 comments
One of the more unsavoury aspects of Key’s “we would love wages to drop” saga is the unwarranted attacks by Key and his allies on the journalist who quoted him, Greg Robertson. Key referred to Robertson as some “young guy who was taking notes“. Key said Robertson’s quote was wrong, or that he was joking, […]
Jones to Key: say it to our faces
Written By: - Date published: 3:25 pm, February 25th, 2008 - 23 comments
Far North Labour MP Shane Jones laid down the gauntlet to Key over the ‘we would love to see wages drop‘ scandal. Jones reminds Key that: “all it takes to ruin a Teflon pan is one scratch” and in a second press release lays out his challenge: ‘there’s only one way for Mr Key to […]
Transcript proves Key is lying
Written By: - Date published: 11:56 am, February 25th, 2008 - 76 comments
When it was revealed that John Key had told a business leader he ‘would love to see wages drop‘ it undermined everything he’d told national media about wanting to lift wages. It also had the potential to do irreparable damage to his rhetoric on tax cuts and to show him as being less than honest […]
The deafening silence
Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, February 25th, 2008 - 30 comments
At a meeting in Kerikeri last year with a business leader, in the presence of journalist Greg Robertson, National Leader John Key said ‘we would love to see wages drop‘. When this story broke last week, the political commentators were naturally cautious. It is an extraordinary quote. Not because a National leader would think wages […]
Tail-spin
Written By: - Date published: 11:12 am, February 23rd, 2008 - 73 comments
While National is trying to pretend John Key’s quote that “we would love to see wages drop” is a non-issue, behind the scenes they’re floundering. We’ve all heard the multiple and conflicting denials (“I can’t recall”, “I never said it”, “I was misquoted”, “I was talking about Australian wages”), and now thanks to a lazy […]
Key incoherent on pay cut plans
Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, February 22nd, 2008 - 13 comments
Following the revelation that John Key told a business audience “we would love to see wages drop“, bFM asked him to elaborate [MP3, 3.5MB]: Key: The, look I’ll tell you what the situation was there. We were in a, I know I don’t overtly remember it as part of the DVD tour but it was […]
Recent Comments