Minister for Photo-ops

Categories under Minister for Photo-ops

  • No categories

No accountability in National Government

Written By: - Date published: 7:28 am, October 16th, 2012 - 252 comments

I watched Paula Bennett and her MSD CEO make excuses and say sorry yesterday as they revealed that they had let the personal data of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders sit in the open at WINZ kiosks – and it’s all still open to anyone working at MSD. I didn’t hear either of them offer their resignations. What do they think we pay them for?

Does Key give a damn any more?

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, October 10th, 2012 - 29 comments

My old man, a casual observer of politics, said the other day: “John boy doesn’t look like he wants to be there anymore”. I reckon he’s right. Except when he’s doing photo-ops, Key looks ever more grumpy and aloof. No wonder he’s spending so much time overseas. No wonder he’s making such bad decisions like betraying his promise to the Pike River families.

Key’s growing Dotcom problem

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, October 10th, 2012 - 29 comments

People don’t just vote for politicians because they like their policies. Just as important are trust and perceived competence. Key’s policies were never popular. He won on the other two – particularly trust. That’s why the Dotcom saga is so ruining for him. As more details of what Key knew or should have known come out day by day, perceptions of Key’s competence and trust in him plummet.

Mr Wrong

Written By: - Date published: 7:51 am, October 9th, 2012 - 32 comments

No wonder Key’s losing his credibility. He just keeps on getting it wrong.

Brain fade: an incomplete history of Key’s selective forgetfulness

Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, October 5th, 2012 - 57 comments

Frankly Speaking has a nice compilation of some of John Key’s “brain fades” in the last couple of years. Funnily enough, it tends to be that the things he forgets are his direct linkages to government embarrassments – Dotcom, SkyCity, the new BMWs, the Mediaworks bailout, the credit downgrade. To Frank’s list, you can add the Tranzrail shares and probably many more.

It came from Planet Key

Written By: - Date published: 9:15 am, September 22nd, 2012 - 39 comments

John Key on the impoverished Chatham Islands, holding a huge crayfish. He says ‘big as a horse, freshly cooked, $80 a kilo.’ He kisses the cray, then looks at the camera and says ‘jealous?’ Christ, what a cock. Those 270,000 kids aren’t jealous, arsehole. They’re hungry. The fact he knows the price of cray off the top of his head but not how many Kiwis are unemployed tells you all you need to know.

Schadenfreude

Written By: - Date published: 7:31 am, September 3rd, 2012 - 21 comments

I hope you won’t think less of me when I say I’m enjoying Key’s angst over baby formula companies using him in their ads in China. Key says it wasn’t an endorsement when he went to the factory, signed a tin of formula, and smiled for the cameras holding it. That, we’re supposed to believe, isn’t a promotion. Actually, it’s meant to be a one-way promotion: of Key.