John Key’s Top Ten

Written By: - Date published: 5:01 pm, November 8th, 2011 - 79 comments
Categories: Economy, john key, national, phil goff - Tags: ,

It may not be as fun as a Letterman Top Ten, but John Key deserves to be judged on his record as all prime-ministers are:

  1. Unemployment has increased by 50 per cent, leaving 157,000 New Zealanders out of work. 
    (Source: Statistics New Zealand, Household Labour Force Survey)
  2. 100,000 New Zealanders have left for Australia after he promised he would stop the brain drain.
    (Source: Statistics New Zealand, International Travel and Migration)
  3. Prices have gone up nearly four times faster than incomes over the past 3 years. John Key increased prices by hiking GST after promising not to.
    (Source: Statistics New Zealand, New Zealand Income Survey and Consumer Price Index)
  4. The first credit rating downgrade in 13 years and a double downgrade at that.
    (Source: Westpac, Weekly Commentary: Sign of the times, 3 October 2011)
  5. There are 60,000 more people on benefits costing an extra $1 billion a year.
    (Sources: MSD, National Benefit Factsheet and Monthly Benefit Data; and Treasury, Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update 2011)
  6. The wage gap with Australia has increased by $32 a week.
    (Sources: Statistics New Zealand, Quarterly Employment Survey and Australian Bureau of Statistics, Average Weekly Earnings, PPP adjusted)
  7. There are 55,200 15 to 24 year olds not in education, employment or training and the number of young people on the unemployment benefit long term has increased by over 700 per cent.
    (Sources: Statistics New Zealand, Household Labour Force Survey, NEETs and Hon Paula Bennett, Question for Written Answer 6058 )
  8. The economy has grown by just 0.4 per cent since John Key took office.
    (Source: Statistics New Zealand, Gross Domestic Product)
  9. National’s tax cuts for the most well off were supposed to be paid for with the GST. They actually cost an extra $1.1 billion in their first nine months.
    (Source: Treasury, Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the year ended 30 June 2011)
  10. The underclass has grown with the number of children living in benefit dependent households increasing by over 32,000 in the past 3 years.
    (Source: New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services, Vulnerability Report, Sept 2009 and Sept 2011)

h/t Phil Goff

Although this post should be covered by the opinion section of electoral law and shouldn’t need authorisation, here’s mine anyway, just to be safe:
Authorised by Ben Clark, 54 Aramoana Ave, Devonport

 

 

 

79 comments on “John Key’s Top Ten ”

  1. DS 1

    Whoa. That’s depressing.

  2. randal 2

    according to the msm news link to the herald kweewee claims The next Prime Minister is in denial. that is just lies. Phil Goff and Labour have a programme but all key can do is criticise. He has no plan of his own except to sell the states assets and piss off back to where he came from clutching his jobbers turn.

    • marsman 2.1

      When we boot John Key out don’t give him a knighthood give him the bill for the damage he’s done to this country.

      • Jim Nald 2.1.1

        That would be too kind.
        He needs to be dragged kicking and screaming before an Economic & Financial Crimes Tribunal.

        • seeker 2.1.1.1

          @ Jim Nald 8.53pm

          “He needs to be dragged kicking and screaming before an Economic & Financial Crimes Tribunal.”

          Agreed, but the times they are a’changing for Key and his like, their time is nearly up,please god.

          http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/07/one-per-cent-wealth-destroyers

          “This is now changing. On Sunday evening I witnessed a remarkable thing: a debate on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral between Stuart Fraser, chairman of the Corporation of the City of London, another official from the corporation, the turbulent priest Father William Taylor, John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network and the people of Occupy London. It had something of the flavour of the Putney debates of 1647. For the first time in decades – and all credit to the corporation officials for turning up – financial power was obliged to answer directly to the people.

          It felt like history being made. The undeserving rich are now in the frame, and the rest of us want our money back.” George Monbiot .7-11-11

      • Hami Shearlie 2.1.2

        Don’t think $50 million would cover that huge bill, do you?

  3. exitlane 3

    “The economy has grown by just 0.4 per cent since John Key took office.
    (Source: Statistics New Zealand, Gross Domestic Product)”

    so have we seen the end of “growth”. The end of cheap oil and extreme levels of debt worldwide suggest we have.

    Time for Labour and the Greens (“green growth”) to face the new economic reality.

  4. ianmac 4

    Funny how the Herald mentions 3 in short form then closes.
    Stuff does at least list the 10 but in shortened form without the references. Funny that.
    Must mean that there is no market for facts or else we the people are being treated as stupid.

  5. Dv 5

    Just WHO is in denial?

    • Tom Gould 5.1

      Who is in denial? The arch-Tories who run the National Herald and Fairfox, for starters. Or maybe Johnboy really means the hungry kids are the ones in denial? Maybe they are not hungry or cold at all? They just imagine they are and need to get real?

  6. Rodel 6

    Two points:
    1] A brilliant analysis by Goff and Co. But NZ voters, floating voters in particular are less influenced by facts than by feelings. Labour has to tap into these if it wants their votes.

    2] As in the last election Labour is being sucked into focusing on Key. Just what National want.
    The real culprit stuffing our country is Bill English together with the shadowy figures like Joyce and Smith who hide behind the Key facade.The real culprits are the National so called ‘team’, not the celebrity turkey.
    Labour has a real team. And they are showing it.
    and
    A question : I’ve heard Key being described as an accountant as if he’s qualified in something. Is he?

    • lulu 6.1

      John Key attended Aorangi School, then Burnside High School, and earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree in accounting from the University of Canterbury in 1981.[3][5] He has attended management studies courses at Harvard University.[6]

      Before politics Key’s first job was in 1982, as an auditor at McCulloch Menzies, and he then moved to be a project manager at Christchurch-based clothing manufacturer Lane Walker Rudkin for two years.[7] Key began working as a foreign exchange dealer at Elders Finance in Wellington, and rose to the position of head foreign exchange trader two years later, then moved to Auckland-based Bankers Trust in 1988.[3]

  7. Tigger 7

    John Key in response to the list :”I work 19 hours a day, seven days a week to try and make New Zealand a better country.”

    Really John, 19 hours every single day of every week? Someone’s in denial about how hard he works. I’m not saying he doesn’t work hard, righties, I’m saying this is egging his real hours. If a worker lied about his hours it would be fraud, btw…

    • Carol 7.1

      This includes RWC matches and award ceremonies, hosting Radio shows talking about his cat, time in make-up for the latest photo ops? It’s not the hours put in, but the quality of the tasks done.

    • Dv 7.2

      AND its not working John.

    • newsense 7.3

      some one has to drink that RWC wine. If JK is prime minister (his reasoning must go) then when he brushes his teeth he’s working to make the prime ministers teeth cleaner and thus a better country…

  8. randal 8

    Joyce is free with the truth as well. I saw him on Teevee telling people that when the ufb is rolled out they will be able to download anything they want for free, nudge nudge wink wink. Now that is theft pure and simple.

    • Zorr 8.1

      Not just that but the reason for data limits in New Zealand is due to the lack of quality connections to other countries. The bandwidth is precious, and so therefore becomes valuable.

  9. aj 9

    vis Stuff: “On Goff’s top 10 list, his view was that “most of them are either rubbish or as I say they are in denial of the international circumstances we face”

    I can’t wait for the MSN to go through these one by one with Key to find the the ones that are rubbish…yeah, right

  10. tsmithfield 10

    Yawn.

    Nothing said about a global recession, a series of earthquakes etc. Nothing said about what Goff would have done better. Nothing said about the fact that we are not like Europe or the US in terms of unemployment or debt.

    Goff is a joke, and his popularity rating suggests that most people realise that.

    • KJT 10.1

      The so called Journalists are a joke.

      Running Goff’s comments with a voice-over by Key.

      Partisan Not!

      If they investigated Key’s record properly, he would be lynched.

    • fender 10.2

      Goff is a man with values and substance, something we don’t need anymore eh tsmithfield. His popularity reflects the importance N.Z.rs seem to place on celebrity rather than policy wouldn’t you say? He’s leading the party that has all the ideas designed to restore fairness and dignity in N.Z. But that isn’t something we want either is it.

  11. randal 11

    thats right aj. garner and gluon have made a living by not asking questions. and if national get in then he will be the mainman at RNZ. Watchout.

  12. fender 12

    Can’t even watch the sports news without seeing donKey there as well, after seeing him last week at TAB, today he was at Chch horse races, some gamblers don’t know when to quit.

  13. KJT 13

    Don’t forget the median wage decreased by $82/week.

  14. John Dalley 14

    So Shonkey thinks smiling and waving is work, well i never.

  15. Draco T Bastard 15

    Well, National does seem to be concerned about #10. They’ve now decided that people who are deemed a danger to society will be detained indefinitely beyond their sentence.

    That authoritarianism of theirs is showing stronger everyday.

  16. newsense 16

    Herald didn’t properly report it only reporting two, then linked to a video of Key and Nick Smith.

    Now they’re reporting Key’s reaction.

  17. newsense 17

    “So for Prime Minister John Key to insist that 65 is sustainable, provided we stick with National’s economic strategy, is as fatuous as it is self-serving.” Herald economics editor.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/brian-fallow-on-the-economy/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502863&objectid=10763443

    How do people keep thinking Key has credibility on the economy ?

    The Herald must be one odd place to work right now….

    Labours numbers add up:

    cue polls on CGT, retirement age, and asset sales

    (backing music: and you know that it’s right/we have got to get it together now…)

  18. newsense 18

    Ha just realised- if they aren’t reporting it properly must mean it is good- get this list out there!

  19. Who can blame kiwi’s from leaving this backward country. Jobless everywhere and the scum of the earth pricks want a f##king election?

    What a sick country run by selfish ego misfits!!!  Only a pathetic creature would trust a politician.Why vote for more rotten lying filth?

  20. seeker 20

    @ Newsense 9.54pm

    Posted this link earlier on” Economic Credibility……”

    I think the link might help answer yur question :

    How do people keep thinking Key has credibility on the economy?

    George Monbiot in the Guardian today:
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/07/one-per-cent-wealth-destroyers

    Here is a quote from the link:

    “The claims that the ultra-rich 1% make for themselves – that they are possessed of unique intelligence or creativity or drive – are examples of the self-attribution fallacy. This means crediting yourself with outcomes for which you weren’t responsible. Many of those who are rich today got there because they were able to capture certain jobs. This capture owes less to talent and intelligence than to a combination of the ruthless exploitation of others and accidents of birth, as such jobs are taken disproportionately by people born in certain places and into certain classes.

    The findings of the psychologist Daniel Kahneman, winner of a Nobel economics prize, are devastating to the beliefs that financial high-fliers entertain about themselves. He discovered that their apparent success is a cognitive illusion. For example, he studied the results achieved by 25 wealth advisers across eight years. He found that the consistency of their performance was zero. “The results resembled what you would expect from a dice-rolling contest, not a game of skill.” Those who received the biggest bonuses had simply got lucky.

    Such results have been widely replicated. They show that traders and fund managers throughout Wall Street receive their massive remuneration for doing no better than would a chimpanzee flipping a coin. When Kahneman tried to point this out, they blanked him. “The illusion of skill … is deeply ingrained in their culture.” George Monbiot U.K. Guardian 7-11-11

    Does this mean that Key is suffering from “self-attribution fallacy” and that he is a “cognitive illusion.”

    • Hami Shearlie 20.1

      So John the chimp flipped a coin! No wonder he said he’s a monkey’s uncle!

      • seeker 20.1.1

        Exactly Hami.rofl. Then remembered that unfortunately Unkey Munkey is our ‘leader’ and sobered up very quickly
        .
        How do we prise the dewy eyes open of the slimily seduced love- John- a -lot partisans who don’t realise they are following someone as clueless as a chimpanzee to their and ultimately our (New Zealand ‘s) financial doom.

        I am beyond worry that this chimp will sell our assets and ultimately our independence as a sovereign nation ( as we will be eventually be dependent on some foreign investor for our power, so no longer self sufficient) because he is mentally ill.

        He must be away with the fairies to :
        a) sell our assets when they bring in far more continous revenue than a one off fire sale http://www.nzherald.co.nz/best-of-political-analysis/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502734&jectid=10764657
        b) sell them when to do so will give up our self sufficiency if the rest of the world goes under in these precarious times
        c)not worry that he is putting an extra burden on the poor and struggling when prices go up to give shareholders good profits

        And idiots will let him, even when most Kiwis don’t want him to sell and he has given them no good reason to sell- just because of Love Potion Number 9, sorry 666!

        • Hami Shearlie 20.1.1.1

          Finally – the only explanation that makes sense!!

          • seeker 20.1.1.1.1

            Cheers Hami. I still don’t know what to do about it though – apart from pray!! Oh and question and call out Key at public meetings to prevent him brainwashing more of the gullible, perhaps even wake some of the national faithful out of their comas.- especially the Grey Power national/ act groupies

            Waking/wising up to Key’s selfish, short sighted slimy, spin is the least they can do for New Zealand and the young before they pop their clogs and have no use for all the money they spent their life idolising and now have to explain to the Almighty just why they selfishly wasted their life doing just that.
            At the very least voting in anyone but National/act/uf who are going to sell our assets might earn these aging Nact groupies a reprieve from the Almighty for thinking of our most precious resource- future young Kiwis, rather than thinking of anyone but themselves and money or, idolising Key,

    • Something else to share with your John Key voting friends

    • In Vino Veritas 20.3

      Thanks seeker. I note they make this comment:

      “This is not to suggest that all executives are psychopaths”

      I reiterate, where is the diagnosis that Key is a psychopath? Just because he was working in currency trading doesnt make him one.

      • seeker 20.3.1

        @ In vino veritas
        “The psychopathic traits on which the bosses scored so highly, Board and Fritzon point out, closely resemble the characteristics that companies look for. Those who have these traits often possess great skill in flattering and manipulating powerful people. Egocentricity, a strong sense of entitlement, a readiness to exploit others and a lack of empathy and conscience are also unlikely to damage their prospects in many corporations.”

        Mr.Key appears to possess all these traits judging by his behaviour and words over the last three and a half years.

        “In their book Snakes in Suits, Paul Babiak and Robert Hare point out that as the old corporate bureaucracies have been replaced by flexible, ever-changing structures, and as team players are deemed less valuable than competitive risk-takers, psychopathic traits are more likely to be selected and rewarded…….

        But maybe it is not just psychopathic traits Mr. Key displays.but the traits of a predator (or assassin ) which ‘in reality is actually’ a parasite!

        This is not to suggest that all executives are psychopaths. It is to suggest that the economy has been rewarding the wrong skills. As the bosses have shaken off the trade unions and captured both regulators and tax authorities, the distinction between the productive and rentier upper classes has broken down. Chief executives” and Prime Ministers “now behave like dukes, extracting from their financial estates sums out of all proportion to the work they do or the value they generate, sums that sometimes exhaust the businesses they parasitise. They are no more deserving of the share of wealth they’ve captured than oil sheikhs
        The rest of us are invited, by governments and by fawning interviews in the press, to subscribe to their myth of election: the belief that they are possessed of superhuman talents. The very rich are often described as wealth creators.” (by PMs giving whopping 5% tax cuts to the already wealthy and taxing by stealth and lies with GST and ETS the poor.)
        “But they have preyed on the earth’s natural wealth and their workers’ labour and creativity, impoverishing both people and planet. Now they have almost bankrupted us. The wealth creators of neoliberal mythology are some of the most effective wealth destroyers the world has ever seen.”

        See how this neoliberal ideology has corrupted us In Vino Veritas. By rewarding and lauding dysfunctional personality traits it’s poison has “trickled down” to infect the 70 % who see a shallow, empty, PM as a hero wealth creator for themselves, and possibly New Zealand, as an after thought, if they could only touch the hem of his right trouser leg!
        John Key is a prime example of a wealthy money trader with a bad attack of “self attribution fallacy” whose apparent financial success, intelligence and hard work so proclaimed by litle miss -gets- everything -wrong Michelle Boag, blind Nat.followers and a sycophantic partisan MSM is really a cognitive illusion. For the outcome of his 3 year throat slitting performance has been a big fat zero-and that is inflated. The emperor had no clothes all along – and he knew it. However his real skill lies in deception and that’s what he has worked hard to achieve for himself and his business masters, I am sorry to say.

        • In Vino Veritas 20.3.1.1

          seeker, I’m sure you mean well, and I’m certainly no psychologist and therefore have no particular view on this research. However, I’m still not sure how you can tell Key is a psychopath. I havent seen “egocentricity, a strong sense of entitlement, a readiness to exploit others and a lack of empathy and conscience” from him, well no more than Phil Goff. Unless you’ve sat the guy on a couch and spoken to him (as opposed to a few sound bites on radio and TV and a couple of debates) how can you possible tell?

          Surely this is just your opinion of him, rather than a fact?

          • Joe 20.3.1.1.1

            All politicians, if they want to get anywhere, have to be egocentric and have a readiness to exploit others. It’s how they beat all the other politicians in the popularity contest we call elections

  21. tc 21

    Yet again the MSM shows it can’t simply report but intervene and judge by interjecting one polly over another.
    Basic journalism is you leave it out there verbatim with references and let the other party pick it apart, not do it for them or assist them.
    Then there’s the fixation with polls rather than focus on issues and whats actually being released as policy and said.
    It’s another Eason folk flee to Oz, the Playing fields level and the reforms of hawke keating the right don’t dare touch…..cgt, fbt, compulsory super.

  22. In Vino Veritas 22

    I see Mr Goff has told another lie. In the leaders debate he claimed NZ’s “best and brightest” were leaving NZ for Australia. The analysis he has used for the 100,000 above, actually shows the movement is mainly in those who are low\unskilled. I guess you could say “worst and dumbest”

    • In which case the remaining smarty pants should read this and vote the bastard out.

      Unless you think a psychopathic asshole is a good idea as a PM!

      • In Vino Veritas 22.1.1

        traveller, on what basis do you conclude that the PM is a psychopath? Surely you must be qualified in this field to make such a comment, so I’m interested in your diagnosis.

        • seeker 22.1.1.1

          @In Vino Veritas

          read this link
          :
          http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/07/one-per-cent-wealth-destroyers

          and see if you can discern why traveller, and others, might conclude that the PM “is a psychopath” or at the very least has psychopathic traits. One clue is his self-attribution fallacy, where he credits himself (desperately) with outcomes for which he was not responsible,and produces embellished, and ever exaggerated falsehoods to tarnish others achievements. It’s very worrying.

    • tc 22.2

      I wouldn’t call tradespeople ‘worst and dumbest’ which where alot of that is coming from genius.

    • Anne 22.3

      Got it wrong In Vino Veritas @ 8:29am. Just been listening to a Massey University professor (Radio NZ) who has done research into the types of people moving to Aussie. It turns out they are mostly skilled workers who a taking up jobs well below their skill levels, but which still give them an income significantly higher than they were earning in NZ.

    • seeker 22.4

      Goff doesn’t lie – in the political sense that is.Now John Key…………

  23. Deadly_NZ 23

    I am just waiting until Campaign has him on for questions, this sunday at 8.30pm on Sky News or replayed on Prime at 10:40 last week they had Goff on and he did well but it all depends if Soper and co give him a grilling, or just the usual sycophantic easy questions.

    • Hami Shearlie 23.1

      Hope we don’t hear all about Mummy and the state house again, it’s making me nauseous!. They should put his feet to the fire for a change! But I’m mega-doubtful it will happen. Who owns Sky/Prime – JK’ s buddies!

  24. In Vino Veritas 24

    I direct you all to

    http://www.treasurt.govt.nz/budget/forecasts/eff2008/00.htm

    Funnily enough, Labour and Goff were privy to all this and yet act surprised that it has come to pass, for example, unemployment forecast for 2011 – 6.2% (worst case scenario 7.2%) and yet they blame Key for it. Now that’s hypocrisy. Oh, and lies by omission.

    Did I mention Labour’s 10 years of deficits ahead comment in 08?

    • Colonial Viper 24.1

      the only hypocritical thing here is that when the NATs were in power and they knew all this, they just sailed NZ straight into it.

      Labour would have acted, and when we take power, we will use the power of Government in the economy, to act. And not leave it to market failure to dictate NZ direction.

    • Draco T Bastard 24.2

      Did I mention Labour’s 10 years of deficits ahead comment in 08?

      That was a projection and projections can be changed by acting on the causes of the initial projection – just as Labour promised to do. What we got instead was the NAct coalition that increased the deficits beyond what the projections were to give their rich mates more money for nothing while also holding NZ in recession.

  25. Interesting 25

    Sounds like you all forget the shitty position the long term Labour government left the country in, or the massive GFC, or that Christchurch cost the country, and will cost the country for generations.

    But you are right, none of that matters.
    It would all have been sunshine and carebears had a Labour govenrment been in power.

    • seeker 25.1

      @ Interesting

      “Sounds like you all forget the shitty position the long term Labour government left the country in..”

      Who told you this? And Colonial Viper @ 4.37pm virtually addressed your other points.

    • Hami Shearlie 25.2

      9 years Labour – no government debt, 3 years National – mega public debt! For the poor in NZ John Key has the perfect present – Leave The Cupboards Bear!!

      • In Vino Veritas 25.2.1

        9 years Labour under the best economic conditions for a generation and the country had no cash in the bank since it was all spent. And economy nosediving into a recession thanks to a global crisis. Oh, and future government saddled with things like bloated bureaucracy, interest free student loans and over 40% of households being net beneficiaries.

        3 years National saddled with prior governments gross overspending, confronting a global recession followed by the destruction of Christchurch.

        But why let the facts get in the way of rabid idealogical nastiness?

        • mickysavage 25.2.1.1

          IVV
           
          You are full of it.
           
          In 2008 after 9 years of surplusses and Cullen paying off debt New Zealand got into credit for the first time in many decades.
           
          The 2008 Prefu did say after that there would be a decade of deficits.
           
          This is because Key and his ilk at firms like Merryll and Lynch mob stuffed up the world’s economy with their greed.  Treasury said that tax income would drop because of the hit businesses would take and suddenly more money would need to be spent than would come in because of the change.
           
          Reality does not stop you spinning.
           
          But finding the truth is not what you want to do is it?  Youjust want to have a yelling match so that the gullible do not see what a shocking job Key and co are doing.

    • Draco T Bastard 25.3

      Another attempt by a RWNJ to re-write history:

      1.) The last Labour led government left the country in a fairly good state (financially)
      2.) The GFC was caused by the policies that NAct want to implement
      3.) Chch did cost the country, NAct has cost it far more
      4.) Well, it would have been better than having the psychopathic National Party in government.

      • In Vino Veritas 25.3.1

        Draco, as with most of your posts, you have plenty to say, with no substance. Let me help you with a few questions so that you can flesh out your drivel:

        (1) Please provide details of “fairly good state”. Do not forget, it was so good, they were forecasting 10 years of deficits.
        (2) Which policies specifically are you referring to?
        (3) In what way has National cost the country more than ChCh has cost the country?
        (4) How can an entity that is not alive be psychopathic?

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