Key calls Slater’s bluff

Written By: - Date published: 11:11 am, December 2nd, 2014 - 54 comments
Categories: john key - Tags: , ,

Respected commentators are now talking seriously about the likelihood that Cameron Slater has dirt on John Key (probably in the form of the record of their communications) that he is using to influence the PM. Why else would Key stay in touch with and defend the toxic blogger?

Slater has a history of threatening Key on his blog (though the clearest example comes from a puppet blog as quoted here). He was still at it yesterday.

Has Key decided (ht Matthew Hooton) to call Slater’s bluff?

PM has ‘nothing to fear’ over Slater contact

The Prime Minister says he has nothing to fear if Cameron Slater’s kept a record of their chats. … And he says he doesn’t have any concerns about the phone calls being made public.

The ball seems to be in Slater’s court.

54 comments on “Key calls Slater’s bluff ”

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  1. politikiwi 1
    2 December 2014 at 11:24 am

    Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I would bet good money that Cam knew the PM was going to say exactly this, and that he will keep quiet while still being able exert influence as he wishes.

    • r0b 1.1
      2 December 2014 at 11:27 am

      Yes, he’d be mad to blow it all up, just to prove his point. Better to keep pulling the strings.

    • politikiwi 1.2
      2 December 2014 at 1:00 pm

      Slater and Key are, I think, protecting each other.

      Putting my “armchair political strategist” hat on:
      The opposition should pick up on the line that this Government isn’t the Key Government, it’s the Key/Slater Government. The stronger the association between Key and Slater in the public mind, the more corrosive this will be for National.

      A similar tactic was used to remarkable effect to tarnish the Mana and Internet Party brands with Brand Kim Dotcom during the runup to the 2014 election.

      If you lie down with dogs, Mr Key, you’re going to get fleas.

      • felix 1.2.1
        2 December 2014 at 6:31 pm

        Lie down with Slater and you’ll probably get rabies too.

      • North 1.2.2
        2 December 2014 at 7:35 pm

        Best analysis Politikiwi. Great plan. Key/Slater. Giggles meets Ugly.
        Not that many giggles lately but you know what I mean.

      • TONY T 1.2.3
        3 December 2014 at 5:28 pm

        Protecting eachother? hmmm more like holding the sword of damocles over eachother’s heads

  2. cogito 2
    2 December 2014 at 11:37 am

    Key’s obviously had a chat with his mate Fletcher at the GCSB and been given the assurance that any recorded “chats” can be found and deleted so Slater would have nothing to throw around.

  3. shorts 3
    2 December 2014 at 11:43 am

    I would wager Slater has a lot on Key going back to when his dad was recruiting our favourite money man to stand for National, the least of which would embarrass honest John

    I would also wager that this current point scoring by the two of them is the perfect wind to knock all other dishonest John stories out of the media and this current story will go nowhere

    • ghostwhowalksnz 3.1
      2 December 2014 at 12:22 pm

      Slater didnt recruit him to stand for national. The electorate was all arranged by Boag, including pushing then MP Brian Neeson under the bus.

      [deleted]

      [lprent: I can’t see any evidence one way or another. That topic is off-limits unless I see a credible link. ]

      • shorts 3.1.1
        2 December 2014 at 12:52 pm

        according to wiki “In 1998, on learning of his interest in pursuing a political career, the National Party president John Slater began working actively to recruit him” – not that the finer detail matters, the point being the Slaters have been involved with key a long while… (your additional info I did not know… gah how horrid are these people)

        • ghostwhowalksnz 3.1.1.1
          2 December 2014 at 1:43 pm

          That Slater was milking Key for donations is not in doubt. Getting him along to party functions and shaking hands with Mps was easy.

          It was getting the nomination for a safe seat in the bag over longer serving local was the hard part.
          This is what Boag did, they had to hold the doors of the local hall open later to allow the ‘drive in’ delegates from around Auckland who got lost, cast their votes.

      • Marty 3.1.2
        2 December 2014 at 3:30 pm

        [deleted]

        [lprent: I can’t see any evidence one way or another. That topic is off-limits unless I see a credible link. ]

  4. Skinny 4
    2 December 2014 at 11:47 am

    Don’t hold your breath anything will come of this. Slater is born into the National Party pretty much and won’t be spilling the beans on Key no matter what. His old man would have given Crap Happy Key assurances of this.

    • weka 4.1
      2 December 2014 at 12:03 pm

      what makes you think Slater’s father controls Slater? How do you explain Key’s statement today?

      • Skinny 4.1.1
        2 December 2014 at 12:14 pm

        @Weka usual reason, the old boys network is why. You know a hand shake I’ll give you my word, back slapping, back hander’s, scratch my back I’ll scratch yours. Birds or a feather flock together, the closed shop of the elite in other words.

      • Pascals bookie 4.1.2
        2 December 2014 at 12:23 pm

        Key’s statement is easy to explain.

        Look at what people were saying yesterday. He had to say ‘nope, that’s not true’. Changes nothing though.

        Persoanlly I don;t think the blackmail theory is needed to explain why Key hasn;t cut Slater loose. He hasn’t cut him loose because he doesn’t see anything wrong with keeping him close.

        It’s unfortunate that it bacame public, and they both had to do some damage control, but the relationship works for them.

        Slater goes off at Key quite regularly. Has done for ages, and yet we know for a fact that Key gave him his cellphone number. But for all that Slater does his nut about how weak Key is, he never really gets around to dishing his awesome ‘dirt’. Everything public is for public consumption. None of it means anything.

      • the pigman 4.1.3
        3 December 2014 at 2:18 am

        I can’t remember whether it was actually quoted in DP or appeared in the subsequent rawshark transcripts, but Slater has a giant chip on his shoulder with his dad, and the perceived injustices done to him by other senior nats. If Slater had his way, daddy would be a knighty (then he could be a squire!)

  5. minarach 5
    2 December 2014 at 12:29 pm

    Maybe they attend the same lodge ?

    just sayin…….

  6. vto 6
    2 December 2014 at 12:53 pm

    slater may end up blowing his own ball-sacks up like dotcom did …..

    bluster bluster… and even when what he has is true and important and damaging to the PM etc, it doesn’t matter, the public is so god-damn sick of it they just wanna go to Omaha and have a swimmy swim.

    ffs

  7. BM 7
    2 December 2014 at 12:54 pm

    If Slater was blackmailing Key and it became public, Slater wouldn’t have a business
    You have to remember currently Cameron makes his money via advertisements and donations/subscriptions.

    How do you think his readers would feel if they found out Slater was blackmailing John Key?, do you think they’d still donate money or read his blog.

    Bit of common sense people.

    • Kaplan 7.1
      2 December 2014 at 2:00 pm

      I think you will find the orchestrated announcement quite nicely fits your assertion.
      Key says he has nothing to fear, Slater keeps quiet by prior arrangement and the game continues for both.
      Anything else and it’s game over for both of them.

    • Tracey 7.2
      2 December 2014 at 3:30 pm

      and putting his name to articles others write…

    • Pascals bookie 7.3
      2 December 2014 at 5:30 pm

      “How do you think his readers would feel if they found out Slater was blackmailing John Key?, do you think they’d still donate money or read his blog”

      lol. I know you read his comment section BM. His readers aren’t exactly what anyone would call smart now are they?

      My fav one at the mo is where he is hinting that he might ask them for money to fund a defamation suit against Little.

      Surely he isn’t straight up bullshitting his rube membership out of dosh? His readership is basically the sort of people that would direct debit to tv evangelists and Sarah Palin PACs if they lived in the US.

      • BM 7.3.1
        2 December 2014 at 5:47 pm

        He did do a few posts critical of Key and got a lot of negative feed back from his readers.

        Btw his readers are just average people who have just started taking an interest in politics,

        They’re the sort of working class people who used to vote labour but have been driven away by the intellectual snobs such as yourself.

        If the left ever wants to see power again these are the people you should be encouraging not ridiculing.

        • Pascals bookie 7.3.1.1
          2 December 2014 at 6:56 pm

          Can you point me to any evidence that these people are as you describe? They look like partisan nutjobs to me. As the ‘pushback’ would suggest. When they talk about their lives or jobs, they tend to go on about their employees, accountants, lawyers etc. Very working class stuff.

          Honestly, how would non political types suddenly find themselves bothering to go to a political blog and joining in on conversations about politics?

          And yeah, I don’t see you denying that based on what they say, they seem stupid.

          • BM 7.3.1.1.1
            2 December 2014 at 7:35 pm

            Honestly, how would non political types suddenly find themselves bothering to go to a political blog and joining in on conversations about politics?

            Why wouldn’t they?, we’ve just had an election, Slater has been all over the news for the past six months.

            Dirty politics drove an awful lot of people to whale oil, which is probably why National almost got an out right election win.

            Funny thing is that the left give him all this free publicity, it’s almost as if they’ve got no idea about how the average Man/Woman thinks.

            • Pascals bookie 7.3.1.1.1.1
              2 December 2014 at 7:45 pm

              Oh, so ‘no evidence’ just a pretty nonsensical reckon that non-political people decided, for no particular reason other than that there was an election on, to head into the political blogs.

              Still no denial that commenters over there are pretty damn stupid, based on the things they say and swallow.

              • BM …
                2 December 2014 at 7:51 pm

                Tell me, how do you think non-political people discover politics?

                • Pascals bookie …
                  2 December 2014 at 8:09 pm

                  Sure, but first you tell me why you think even a reasonable proportion of WO commenters are non political people who just found themselves commenting on WO somehow.

                  It’s only fair, it’s your theory.

                  Also, whether or not you think there is a fairly high level of head smacking stupidity over there. Not just things you disagree with, poor logic and lack of any ability to see that WOs posts are also lacking in logic and misrepresent widely known to be true things.

            • TONY T 7.3.1.1.1.2
              3 December 2014 at 5:37 pm

              well ,based on the evidence so far, the ‘average man or woman’ doesn’t think

          • Paul 7.3.1.1.2
            2 December 2014 at 9:02 pm

            No evidence.
            Just the usual conjecture based on vague anecdotal yarns.

        • felix 7.3.1.2
          2 December 2014 at 7:13 pm

          The commenters on Whaleoil are Slater, his wife, Jason Ede, and a couple of creepy PR guys using 4 or 5 identities each.

          Nothing written on that site, whether in a post or in a comment, counts for shit.

  8. Corokia 8
    2 December 2014 at 1:25 pm

    Yesterday on Morning report, Key said that he deletes his texts for security reasons. That made no sense to me, how does getting rid of only one side of a text exchange improve security for the PM (or anyone) ? Sounds like more bullshit excuses from the master bullshit artist.

    • Ben Adam 8.1
      2 December 2014 at 8:11 pm

      “Not only did I lie about lying, but I lied about lying about lying. And you’d better believe that’s the truth.”
      Jarod Kintz,

  9. Enough is Enough 9
    2 December 2014 at 1:30 pm

    Slater is toxic to us.

    However, I am not convinced that Key and the National Party consider he is toxic to them, or damaging to their popularity.

    They rode the dirty politics saga though the election and came out the other side as the government. In their minds he has not damaged them one bit.

    Slater has always served a purpose for them. He crosses the line that a minister cannot. Association with him has not hurt them.

    Key will be saying “why would abandon a strategy that has served me so well?”

  10. One Anonymous Bloke 10
    2 December 2014 at 3:30 pm

    Strikes me as the sort of relationship* that could materially affect ones security clearance. Not exactly a tenable position for a PM to be in.

    *one that you feel compelled to deny or explain.

  11. Tracey 11
    2 December 2014 at 3:32 pm

    so, Key will release all the texts with Slater, right? This is that situation in the clip where Key said he would answer questions journos forgot to ask.

    So, when is he releasing them?

    • rawshark-yeshe 11.1
      2 December 2014 at 3:43 pm

      Key said in the House today he would not be releasing them …

      • Tracey 11.1.1
        2 December 2014 at 5:24 pm

        what a surprise….

      • Clemgeopin 11.1.2
        2 December 2014 at 8:45 pm

        I think Key said that he would not be asking Slater to release the text messages, as per the Questions in the house today:

        Parts of Q3 today:

        ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by any of his statements last week about the Gwyn report and about his relationship with Cameron Slater?

        Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes.
        ——
        ANDREW LITTLE: Why does he delete records of his text conversations with Cameron Slater? Is it standard practice to delete records of his smear machine, as revealed in both the Gwyn and Chisholm reports?

        Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I do, on an ongoing basis, delete all of my text messages. I do that for a very good reason because, amongst everything else, they would clog up my phone, but for security reasons, it is in case I lost my phone.

        ANDREW LITTLE: In light of his statements this morning that he has nothing to fear from Cameron Slater releasing their communications, will he now request that Mr Slater release those records?

        Rt Hon JOHN KEY: No. [Interruption]

  12. North 12
    2 December 2014 at 7:31 pm

    Blackmail/not blackmail……..whatever. We’ll just have to wait and see on that. If there’s a plan well dispositionally Slater’s a loose cannon. Twisted, unreliable demeanour. If I’m wrong maybe he’ll end up head of our new mission in Tel Aviv.

    No. Fact is Key has proven himself not just a liar but a remarkably inept liar and it’s gone beyond The Beltway. That’s what’s important. Beyond the Beltway. “Liar Liar” is a consciousness that’s ekshully out there now. Like – “You’re a fukn bullshitter mate. Get outa my face ! Schoolboy poop about “noise” only anchors that consciousness. “What ? Prick won’t ‘fess up !”

    Not unimportantly, in the of-late-absence of the well lubricated Smile & Wave Key ekshully does come across pretty much unattractively. A tired, hoha, shifty-eyed bank manager fulla who’s a million miles away from ‘me’. “Him and that prick, what’s his name, Whale Blubber or something ? The prick who laughed about the guy gettin’ killed in a car crash ?”

    “Yeah…….and remember the prick lickin’ Richie’s arse like a big fukn wannabe. What the fuck does that prick know about the game anyway ? Just fukn showboating !”

    It’s incremental. The decline in ‘respect’ is incremental. Oh that it were exponential.

    Never mind – “Cut the crap !” has legs. Instrumental in the incremental.

  13. les 13
    2 December 2014 at 8:45 pm

    this is Slaters finest hour…rated so influential the P.M defers top him!Maybe he will inflate so much he will explode .V.I.P extraordinaire..and lovin it!

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