Key: pay cuts for you, backhanders for my mates

• Steve Pierson
• 16 years ago
• Categories: economy, john key, national
• Tags: economy, john key, national

Even as he flounders from one excuse to the next over his ‘we would love to see wages drop’ statement, it has emerged that John Key is offering hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to his big business mates.

Key promised a $200 million suspensory loan to a new merger of Southland meat exporters. Not $200 million on hospitals, not $200 million on public transport; $200 in an export subsidy for big business.

International trade law prohibits export subsidies because they distort free-trade. As an export-dependent nation, New Zealand needs free trade for access to markets. If we break the rules others will make it harder for us to export.

But that doesn’t matter to Key. He wants the support, and no doubt donations, of a wealthy meat exporter. So, on the hoof, as it were, he promised the company $200 million. Then, ‘When National Party finance spokesman Bill English ambled across the paddock, Mr Key quickly told him “I’ve just committed you to a suspensory loan”. Apparently unfazed, Mr English replied: “As long as it’s under $200 million I don’t mind”.

If he were PM, Key would cut our wages by enacting regressive labour laws, at the same time as dolling out corporate welfare to companies that don’t need, putting our exports’ market access at risk. This is dangerous stuff coming from the mouth of a man who clearly isn’t up to the serious business of running New Zealand but will do and say anything to get the job.