Key called again on bullying tactics

Written By: - Date published: 5:14 pm, August 9th, 2013 - 43 comments
Categories: john key, Spying - Tags: , , , , ,

John Key is a bully who uses the powers of his office inappropriately. Every now and then someone calls him on it – Mike Joy, Jon Stephenson, Andrea Vance and Bradley Ambrose being examples. Now it is the turn of Law Society member Rodney Harrison QC to stand up:

Lawyer hits back at PM’s attack

A top lawyer has branded Prime Minister John Key’s attack on the Law Society over its comments about new spying laws as “desperate.”

Key appeared to question the society’s impartiality after its strong criticism of the proposed Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) bill after Auckland barrister Rodney Harrison QC spoke out on the legislation on behalf of the society.

Key told a Newstalk ZB talkshow this morning that “the person that ran the case . . . one of the people involved” was “Zaoui’s lawyer”, a reference to Harrison who was lead counsel for Algerian refugee politician Ahmed Zaoui in 2002. Zaoui spent time in Auckland prisons after he was branded a national security threat when he applied for refugee status in New Zealand.

“There’s lots of different agendas out there – I’m not going to second guess them,” Key added.

Harrison today said Key’s remarks were “a bit of a desperate jibe, really”.

“I think he hoped to achieve a similar response from ill-informed listeners as he hoped to achieve by his reference to al Qaeda networks operating in New Zealand,” he said.

“It’s just trying to scare people into thinking there’s a problem. “And, personally, I do find it a bit offensive to be judged by reference to the clients I’ve had. …

43 comments on “Key called again on bullying tactics ”

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  1. Murray Olsen 1
    9 August 2013 at 5:49 pm

    Rodney Harrison was not comfortable with injustice and he fought hard against the Clark government to get some measure of justice for Ahmed Zouai. He was bothered that the lies of torturers and murderers were used by the SIS to besmirch an innocent.

    If he’s the sort of person Key uses to cast aspersions, I have found one more reason to not be comfortable with Key. I am very, very bothered. Just how low is Key when the curtain comes fully back? Does he make WhaleSpew look like a bleeding heart Marxist?

  2. BLiP 2
    9 August 2013 at 5:56 pm

    ‘

    And here we see John Key demonstrating the classic National Ltd™ kneejerk response when dealing with an inconvenient truth . . .

    TORY 101: when faced with undeniable facts and/or irrefutable logic, apply ad homs

    . . . as well as seeking to denigrate the source of the truth, such Tory basics help ease the chronic personal cognitive dissonance exacerbated when forced to even consider, let alone examine, their core belief system. Many Tories, particularly those in leadership roles, are not even aware they are using TORY 101. This is because their belief system is installed at a young age and informs even the adult that leadership is defined, achieved, and maintained by those best able to shove others around the playground and steal lunch off the weak, especially those not from here.

    • Rodel 2.1
      9 August 2013 at 8:35 pm

      BLip
      The not being aware bit is so true..and the most concerning.The mafia are/ were not aware that they were/are the mafia.

  3. Anne 3
    9 August 2013 at 5:58 pm

    He can’t bear to be crossed and cannot take criticism. Full of himself. How dare anyone stand up to him- especially when deep down he knows they’re right and he’s wrong. It should be remembered all bullies are cowards when it come to the crunch and it will… in the not too distant future. Then watch him run for cover as fast as his little legs can carry him – all the way to Hawaii.

    • karol 3.1
      9 August 2013 at 6:19 pm

      He can’t bear to be crossed and cannot take criticism.

      Yep, that’s my perception.

  4. McFlock 4
    9 August 2013 at 6:26 pm

    Key thinks that it is a slight on a lawyer’s character to defend someone who was not a terrorist.
    Come on, John, it’s not like Zaoui did anything as shitty as forex trading his own country into bankruptcy.

  5. Paul 5
    9 August 2013 at 6:27 pm

    “Key told a Newstalk ZB talkshow this morning”
    Hoskings or Smith?

    • Pascal's bookie 5.1
      9 August 2013 at 6:29 pm

      Smith.

      • Paul 5.1.1
        9 August 2013 at 6:35 pm

        I assume Smith asked Key difficult and challenging questions about the loss of our Civil Rights, his government spying on Peters, Vance and Ambrose, the army spying on Stephenson etc.
        Or was it a love fest?

        • felix 5.1.1.1
          9 August 2013 at 6:42 pm

          I’d guess the most challenging question would’ve been “what’s wrong with those bloody lefties and why won’t they just stfu?”

        • Anne 5.1.1.2
          9 August 2013 at 6:46 pm

          A love fest for sure. Newstalk ZB is for ignorant louts, the intellectually challenged and the modern day version of the 1930s brown shirts. Radio host Leighton Smith and John Key fit nicely into the mould.

          • Paul 5.1.1.2.1
            9 August 2013 at 7:10 pm

            From Wikipedia…. Smith, ,”always starts his show with a monologue of a few minutes discussing his thoughts on recent events ……is an avid right-winger, an advocate of social authoritarianism and a denier of anthropogenic global warming. ”
            Ignorant host feeding a gullible audience.

          • Rodel 5.1.1.2.2
            9 August 2013 at 8:36 pm

            Hey its just radio retard…we all know that

          • Tim 5.1.1.2.3
            9 August 2013 at 9:54 pm

            Oh for Aunt Daisy – she’d have given him a run for his money. She’d probably also given him a thrill. (The smell of mothballs up the back passage and all that).
            This guy really does have to be NZ’s worst Prime Minister EVER

        • Pascal's bookie 5.1.1.3
          9 August 2013 at 7:05 pm

          I didn’t listen, but I did follow the snark on twitter.

      • North 5.1.2
        10 August 2013 at 7:20 am

        Hatin’ Leighton Smith……..the redneck Tea Partyist who really really really really believes he’s massively intelligent………whose every sheep marble is a pearl. The very sort fascistic oligarchy loves to bits.

  6. red blooded 6
    9 August 2013 at 6:53 pm

    …and yet every time Radio NZ ask for an interview or comment they are turned away. He doesn’t want the more thoughtful listeners to hear him answering what are usually actually pretty tame questions.

    I think it’s a disgrace that our PM treats our state broadcaster with such disdain.

  7. Pascal's bookie 7
    9 August 2013 at 7:18 pm

    Reckon that Pablo over at KP should tell everyone what he really thinks and stop sugar coating it so much:

    http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2013/08/note-to-john-key-zaoui-was-innocent/

    This is why John Key is behaving like a sniveling weasel. In order to garner support for his spying bills he has played on latent anti-Muslim prejudice and fears of terrorism long after the Zaoui case ended to make it appear that Zaoui was guilty of something and that Mr. Harrison was wrong to defend him. Yet the truth is quite different: Mr. Zaoui was an innocent man wrongly accused for political and diplomatic reasons by the New Zealand authorities of crimes he never committed. Mr Harrison was one of the champions who defended Zaoui against the gross injustice perpetrated against him by the State. Both men displayed integrity and steadfastness of purpose in the face of concerted official duplicity and malice.

    • Paul 7.1
      9 August 2013 at 7:29 pm

      Snivelling weasel.
      What an apt description.

    • Chooky 7.2
      9 August 2013 at 7:54 pm

      +1 Pascal’s Bookie

      Zaoui seems to be a very fine man.

      • Rhinocrates 7.2.1
        9 August 2013 at 9:55 pm

        Are you so certain about? Since we so naively let him, he’s masterminded numerous successful and devatstating plots against us decent folk. He blew up the big L and P bottle in Paeroa, put garlic in every pavlova, burned Weta Workshop to the ground, created nanotechnology that turned all Buzzy Bees into sawdust, he organised his terrorist cells to paint all Holden Commodores a very unmanly pink!

    • Rhinocrates 7.3
      9 August 2013 at 10:00 pm

      concerted official duplicity and malice.

      By Clark and Goff, I have to note. “Labour” needs to start showing some consistency and responsibility to have any credibility.

  8. BrucetheMoose 8
    9 August 2013 at 7:32 pm

    Key should be banned from Newstalk ZB and More FM for abusing the privilege of apathetic radio stations…and our intelligence.

  10. MikeG 10
    9 August 2013 at 7:52 pm

    Chris Finlayson first mentioned the Rodney Harrison / Ahmed Zaoui connection in the House on Tuesday night during the GCSB debate, when he also claimed that a number of lawyers were unhappy with the Law Society’s submission.

    • handle 10.1
      9 August 2013 at 8:35 pm

      I suppose zero is a number.

    • North 10.2
      10 August 2013 at 7:45 am

      Well Chrissy QC (hahaha!)……….if there are a number of lawyers unhappy with the Law Society submission let’s have the number and the names. Or would that be to churlishly invade THEIR elegant privacy ? Yikes ! Can’t do that ! (Clutch pearls and look mortified).

      Enough of your devious bitch throwaway lines Chrissy QC. Elitist natter engaged in those wells of democracy the Wellington Club, the Northern Club and similar, does not impress……..

  11. mickysavage 11
    9 August 2013 at 8:01 pm

    I just wish that Rodney Harrison and Key had a chance to debate the issue. Harrison would wipe the floor with Key and then apologise for the debate being so one sided …

  12. exitlane 12
    9 August 2013 at 8:48 pm

    so will Key now attempt to bully Austin Forbes QC who penned the latest Law Society statement which again slated the GCSB bill as remaining “flawed” and for use of SOP without public chance to comment?
    http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/gcsb-bill-remains-flawed-despite-proposed-changes/5/163550

  13. Rhinocrates 13
    9 August 2013 at 9:47 pm

    Key is our Nixon… where are our Woodward and Bernstein? Certainly not Garner and Espiner, nor Rat-boy! Look at them – so determined to look like heroes, so unwilling to be even remotely brave.

  14. Tim 14
    9 August 2013 at 9:48 pm

    He is a bully – but the thing that amuses and disappoints me is that he’s also a wimp – and that makes him a coward.
    His bullying is only possible because of his position – earned in ill-gotten gain fashion.

    The day will come when the trappings and baubles leave him, when there is no DPS, and it’ll probably be a time when he’s tucked up in Hawaii or behind a secure pin-numbered fence and when there’s not a great deal left of Nu Zull.

    • Rhinocrates 14.1
      9 August 2013 at 10:03 pm

      Sir John Key will die fat, happy, in his own bed and at an advanced age.

      That’s how the system works.

  15. Appleboy 15
    9 August 2013 at 10:05 pm

    Where are the right wing nutters to defend this crass crap from their hero?

    • McFlock 15.1
      9 August 2013 at 10:14 pm

      They don’t realise some people view it as a bad thing that needs defending or minimising.

  16. ak 16
    10 August 2013 at 12:42 am

    Bully is such an apt description. The bully mouth: the ugly Key pie hole mashing maniacally like a demented thoroughbred’s vagina. Bulk and physical intimidation no longer acceptable; the subtle ability to denigrate and intimidate orally assuming paramount current cachet. The recent “He’s completely wrong – as usual” delivered re Winnie with aplomb and casual grin a classic example. “The smiling assassin” a vainglorious misnomer for a weak, sneering bully. The essential currency of kiwi CEOs and political appointees: interminable, impenetrable bullshit laced with razors. Utterly merciless bullshitting bullies, 100% putrid, most preferred by circus audiences everywhere.

  17. Sable 17
    10 August 2013 at 1:25 pm

    Sounds like the little Emperor’s crown has slipped or maybe it just never fitted all that well to start with.

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