Key incoherent on pay cut plans

Written By: - Date published: 3:02 pm, February 22nd, 2008 - 13 comments
Categories: john key, national, workers' rights - Tags: , ,

Following the revelation that John Key told a business audience “we would love to see wages drop“, bFM asked him to elaborate [MP3, 3.5MB]:

Key: The, look I’ll tell you what the situation was there. We were in a, I know I don’t overtly remember it as part of the DVD tour but it was in a cafe as, you know, as the person who was travelling with reminds me, it was a cafe in Kerikeri with a young guy who, who was from memory taking some notes but, you know, they’re not quite sure where else he tried to track the down. I mean there’s no, there’s no way on earth I will have either said wages are going, we want wages to fall. I mean if, if

Host: [Bunnings workers are striking for pay parity with their counterparts in Australia, Bunnings is saying they won’t pay more because the market is different here], if you’re Government how do you control something like that?

Key: Well you can’t really control that. I mean that…

Host: So how can you say that you’ll raise wages across the board?

Key: Because the way, the way to raise wages is, employers respond, in my opinion anyway, you, the, the employers do respond to, to greater growth in, in productivity into basically, you know, the workforce being more productive because in the end, they, they’re, essentially their profit margins unquestionable rise and that allows them to respond to greater wage demands. So, I mean it, to take an example, I mean if, if your wages rise and there’s no gain in productivity and they just keep rising and you can’t raise your prices by very much, eventually you go out of business

Out of that nonsense, one phrase stand out for me: ‘I don’t overtly remember’. I wonder what Key remembers but only covertly. Reminiscent of his ‘memory failures’ regarding the Exclusive Brethren, his position on the Springbok Tour, his plan to get rid of caps on GP fees, and his input into pirating Coldplay’s ‘Clocks’.

Seems you can’t trust John Key to remember what he said half an hour ago but you can trust National to cut your wages.

13 comments on “Key incoherent on pay cut plans ”

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  1. Patrick 1
    22 February 2008 at 3:17 pm

    Does he actually have any understanding of the topics his minders tell him to speak about? It’s so awkward hearing him whenever he’s asked about policy detail, it’s quite obvious that there is absolutely no substance there.

  2. Tim 2
    22 February 2008 at 3:27 pm

    Ha ha, that’s hilarious. His response is complete gibberish.

  3. outofbed 3
    22 February 2008 at 3:31 pm

    Key is actually pretty incompetent as a politician really when all said and done. Sooner or later people will wake up to this, hopefully before November, substance always wins over style in the end.

  4. Matthew Pilott 4
    22 February 2008 at 3:33 pm

    In his defence, published transcripts often look pretty bad.

    OTOH, you can usually get some idea what the person is trying to say!

    Also in his defence, maybe the cafe was a trendy one and someone put ‘Clocks’ on in his honour, he might have just been bopping along and said the first thing that popped into his head. A right wing economist’s tourettes’: WAGESSHOULDDROP!

  5. Historian 5
    22 February 2008 at 3:43 pm

    The Gettysburg Address

    By John Key

    “Frankly, four score and – well three or four score, I, I don’t recall – I mean, probably four score and seven, er, years ago our fathers – I mean, fathers and mothers, because frankly, I’m of the view – er, that fathers and mothers – er, they brought forth on this continent – not the whole continent, because frankly, er, it – it is this – er, the continent, they brought forth, er, a new nation, and – I mean, conceived in liberty, so, yeah, it – it was conceived in liberty and dedicated – sort of dedicated, I think, I’m not sure, but er, well, dedicated to the proposition that all men – more or less all, I mean obviously, there are issues around that, and er, well in terms of being created equal, I mean, yeah, I guess you – you would have to take a look at that, that was, that definitely, er, the proposition, er, four score and seven years ago, yeah.”

  6. infused 6
    22 February 2008 at 3:45 pm

    Yup, how many times has HC said I don’t recall?

  7. IrishBill 7
    22 February 2008 at 3:49 pm

    Historian, that’s the best laugh I’ve had for ages! Genius.

  8. Steve Pierson 8
    22 February 2008 at 5:03 pm

    infused. Key can’t recall if he can recall or not.

  9. infused 9
    22 February 2008 at 8:06 pm

    Didn’t answer my question did you.

  10. George 10
    22 February 2008 at 8:29 pm

    does anyone, you know, anyone get the, the impression, that, you know, John Key, I mean, that John Key doesn’t, you know, quite know what he is actually saying. I mean, he, ummm, he doesn’t quite have a sense, like have a sense of, you know, like ummm, what he stands for and, errrr, and what he actually means, I mean, you know, what he thinks on a subject. But maybe, he just, maybe he just tries to make it up, you know, like say what he, like what he thinks people want to hear.

  11. Gone By 2009 11
    22 February 2008 at 10:58 pm

    Yeah, brilliant.[deleted].

    [lprent: goodbye dave]

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