John Key’s weird “gotcha” moment on ACC

Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, March 10th, 2015 - 41 comments
Categories: ACC, Andrew Little, john key, national - Tags: , ,

Andrew Little was pushing the Prime Minister today on the fact that he’s ripping off workers and businesses to the tune of $350 million in ACC levies in order to generate his much-promised, never-delivered budget surplus.

Desperate to throw mud any way he could, Key took this patsy question from Tim MacIndoe:

Here’s the release in question.* That’s right, folks: apparently Andrew Little is a hypocrite because in 2009 he said levies were being raised unnecessarily high in order to prop up National’s political agenda, and in 2015 he’s saying levies are being kept unnecessarily high in order to prop up National’s political agenda.

Breathtaking, isn’t it? A real knockout punch, from the OTT reactions of Macindoe and Ross sitting behind him.

But maybe that does sound like hypocrisy to someone like John Key, to whom going back on his previously-held positions is second nature, whether it’s promising to resign over mass surveillance of New Zealanders, promising to apologise to victims of sexual assault, or promising he hasn’t had contact with Cameron Slater.

The surprising thing is what a terribly weak attack line this is. Since Key and his office lost Jason Ede it’s like all the pizzazz has gone out of the dirty politics machine.

*And no, there’s no conspiracy in me posting that link; it’s the top result when you google “andrew little acc levies epmu”, so calm down, Chaos & Mayhem.

41 comments on “John Key’s weird “gotcha” moment on ACC ”

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  1. felix 1
    10 March 2015 at 5:44 pm

    Not to mention his truly weird recycled mixed-metaphor about horses and white flags.

    Even his support crew were cringing at that.

  2. McFlock 2
    10 March 2015 at 5:56 pm

    The tragedy is that I’m no longer even particularly surprised.
    I guess I’ve just looked the high horse in the mouth one too many times, and have come to expect that it’s wearing no clothes so you can’t make it drink, even if you nail it on the head with a velvet hammer in an iron glove.

  3. whateva next? 3
    10 March 2015 at 6:51 pm

    Key is the most uneloquent speaker I have ever had to listen to.

  4. newsense 4
    10 March 2015 at 6:52 pm

    “Falling off a high horse in Northland can force ACC levies up, I’m fearful a new charge is coming” WTF?
    Man of the people, yeh?

  5. Rodel 5
    10 March 2015 at 7:00 pm

    What an awful embarrassing excuse for a prime minister he is. So false…..Gerry Brownlee looks quite reasonable beside him and even Bill English isn’t so odious.
    Maggie Barry.. yeah-no.
    Little looks more like a real decent Kiwi every time Key does his artificial rant and rave act for the cameras and his sycophants.

    Trying to think of one word that sums up what it is about him that makes me embarrassed to have him as the alleged leader of our country. Slippery doesn’t quite do it. Swear words won’t do it either.

    • Incognito 5.1
      10 March 2015 at 10:19 pm

      contortionistic?

    • Murray Rawshark 5.2
      11 March 2015 at 1:46 am

      Third form class clown is how I think of him. He craves attention and the douchebags in his caucus give it to him. He’s their hero because without him, they’d be even less than they are.

      • David H 5.2.1
        11 March 2015 at 9:58 am

        More like the class bully than the clown. And the sycophants behind him are his bullying gang. Because without TricKey they are all about as appealing as having 4 wisdom teeth out, with NO anaesthetic.

        In fact I’ll take the teeth pain thanx.

  6. wyndham 6
    10 March 2015 at 7:03 pm

    Slightly off topic but in answer to another question today, this time on GCSB spying, Key twice said ‘Helen Clark did it too and if you (Andrew Little) want her cellphone number I’ll give it to you and you can have a talk to her about it.’ All delivered in that shrill tone that comes out when he thinks he’s being clever.

    The man is a dick.

    • Hanswurst 6.1
      10 March 2015 at 7:23 pm

      “DIck” is definitely the right word – just short enough to sum the man up accurately.

      • Rodel 6.1.1
        10 March 2015 at 8:48 pm

        No no. Tony Abbot is a dick. (apologies to Dick Smith, Whittington, Branson and even Nixon.) There is a better word than dick for our rPM.

    • Malconz 6.2
      10 March 2015 at 10:00 pm

      The Opposition should use every opening like this crack about Helen’s cellphone to bring up the question of mass surveillance – make the bastards squirm every time. It will ensure John xKEYscore is on the back foot every time he launches into one of his lisping hissy-fits.

      • North 6.2.1
        10 March 2015 at 11:35 pm

        Yeah the hissy fits are compelling. I was way away overseas when he did his Iraq “get some guts” number and didn’t check out its entirety until tonight. My God what an embarrassing ‘Head Prefect Tries to Suck Headmaster’s Cock’ carry on that was ! I mean he worked really hard to throw himself into a veritable frenzy……all the time giving the impression he was doing just that. So fake !

    • Murray Rawshark 6.3
      11 March 2015 at 1:48 am

      He probably wanted to listen to the conversation. I think the NSA has already been caught spying on UN diplomats.

    • David H 6.4
      11 March 2015 at 9:59 am

      Followed by the sharp intake of breath that says “I’m lying”

  7. Chch_Chiquita 7
    10 March 2015 at 7:08 pm

    So, according to the PM you can’t once reject a recommendation and once accept it? And this is the man so many voters think is such an amazing business man?

  8. tc 8
    10 March 2015 at 7:45 pm

    mcindoe and Lamie Less Dross probably need hand signals from herr leader to know when to guffaw on cue.

  9. Ovid 9
    10 March 2015 at 8:19 pm

    This ACC issue is a really, really good line of attack. First of all, it’s hip-pocket. Secondly, if levies are reduced, Labour can say they placed pressure on the government and they caved. Third, if the government doesn’t reduce the levies, they are shown to be hypocrites.

  10. Atiawa 10
    10 March 2015 at 8:57 pm

    Is anyone able to provide details on where and how much ACC has invested?

    If we aren’t going to get it returned to us how about a few 100 $million of the invested be used to support through training and further education the high number of unemployed youth. They are an accident waiting to happen if we don’t do something positive for them, and preventing accidents will lower our future ACC costs.
    The reality is, there are a multitude of areas that that accumulated reserve of our money could be used in a positive and preventative manner.

  11. fisiani 11
    10 March 2015 at 10:50 pm

    Tim Macindoe : What reports has the Prime Minister received calling for the Government of the time to ignore the ACC board’s recommendations on ACC levies?

    Rt Hon JOHN KEY : Well, fascinatingly enough, I have seen a report from October 2009 arguing strongly that the Government should utterly reject the ACC board levy recommendations. Those comments came in a media release issued by the then Amalgamated Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union National Secretary, Mr Andrew Little, which shows you can reject the board’s recommendations one year and apparently be a slave to their recommendations another.

    So yet another bullshit post making up comments about John Key. Do you guys have no shame?

    [Stephanie: sorry, fisiani, this is blatant trolling. As felix notes, this entire quote was contained in the video linked to this post – the video is even queued up to this exact excerpt – so calling my post “bullshit” and accusing me of being a liar is a bizarrely incompetent attempt to undermine me. Sharpen up or take a holiday.]

  12. Atiawa 12
    10 March 2015 at 10:52 pm

    Wow! $27 billion. Thanks. What a rort. My understanding is that the cost of caring, for example, someone who is paralyzed in a motor vehicle accident is funded for the life time care of that person in the year the accident occurred.
    But how do they know how long a person in that unfortunate situation might live or how many similar high care injuries will occur and why isn’t the funding required collected over a number of years? Imagine the cost of local body rates if a new public swimming pool for example, was totally funded in the year it was built.
    ACC has a shit load of our money invested overseas yet we continue to under fund initiatives that will help to prevent socially unacceptable behaviors that lead to domestic or child violence, rape, youth suicide, to name just a few.
    Either give us our money back or invest it in preventing our own avoidable social disasters.
    ACC levies shouldn’t be the income provider for investment fund managers.

    • joe90 12.1
      10 March 2015 at 11:03 pm

      ACC levies shouldn’t be the income provider for investment fund managers.

      Yes, in the name of choice let’s give it to the insurance industry.
      //

      The changes, often passed under the banner of “reform,” have been pushed by big businesses and insurance companies on the false premise that costs are out of control.

      In fact, employers are paying the lowest rates for workers’ comp insurance since the 1970s. And in 2013, insurers had their most profitable year in over a decade, bringing in a hefty 18 percent return.

      http://www.propublica.org/article/the-demolition-of-workers-compensation

      • Atiawa 12.1.1
        10 March 2015 at 11:35 pm

        Yes. I see what you mean. ACC is acting like a private insurer to our detriment and cost, denying injured working people their dignity and rights.
        I will send your link to friends, family and other workers.
        Cheers.

  13. Hayden 13
    11 March 2015 at 10:40 am

    In 2009 Andrew Little was against raising ACC levies – now in 2015 he’s for lowering them. Does this man’s hypocrisy know no bounds?

    • Murray Rawshark 13.1
      11 March 2015 at 6:18 pm

      ??? Either that’s satire, or you’re as thick as the plank FJK failed to hammer a nail into. I hope it’s the former.

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