Planet Key

Written By: - Date published: 5:48 pm, April 2nd, 2015 - 24 comments
Categories: john key, law, Media, music, Satire - Tags: ,

Turns out that “Planet Key” is not an election advertisement after all. The Electoral Commission got it wrong (on two counts) – and should so some serious thinking about this bungle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv25tcS6J-s

24 comments on “Planet Key ”

  1. saveNZ 1

    Love it!

  2. saveNZ 2

    Once again government flunkies like the Electoral Commission (who as far as I know did not prosecute the high profile sports personalities which tweeted vote National at the General Election so got away with it) but are happy to waste taxpayers money trying to take down a small poor duo’s sartorial response to planet Key in the high court!

    Disgusting!

    Thanks Darren Watson and Jeremy Jones. Fantastic video and music. Loved it.

    Lets stamp on the little guy once again under the Natz.

    (but the little guys has prevailed)

    • Anton 2.1

      It actually isn’t the electoral commission who make the decision on whether to prosecute or not. The EC only hands the information over to police who make the decision to prosecute or not and as I understand it basically have never done anything. Hopefully with the review by Parliament of the general election underway they’ll change the rules on both advertising and broadcasting and get a new system in cause clearly the police don’t want to do the job

    • Sable 2.2

      +1 the EC are indeed flunkies.

  3. r0b 3

    Expect the song will re-appear on iTunes – you can show your support by buying!

  4. saveNZ 4

    I’m happy to buy the iTunes, and also would donate for a sequel video if they wanted to crowd fund it.

  5. NZJester 5

    Well the Nats got it out of the way for a while and I guess they had hoped that by now it would be so irrelevant that it would die out.
    This song might now become a Kiwi classic like “There is No Depression in New Zealand” because of their heavy handed tactics against the song giving it more publicity.

  6. Clemgeopin 6

    May be the video creators should sue National party/electoral commission for monetary compensation for the substantial financial loss they, the song creators, have incurred due to the erroneous actions of the Nats and the commission.

    That will teach the Nats and the commission a lesson, while also giving more publicity to the song.

    • Ancient Ruin 6.1

      This would probably happen under the TPP if it was Sony (he said subversively…)

  7. ghostwhowalksnz 7

    “The Electoral Commission got it wrong (on two counts) – and should so some serious thinking about this bungle.”

    They spend too much time licking the boots.

    Funny they seemed to be hyper active on this front, normally they move at snails pace.

  8. saveNZ 8

    The opposition parties are not putting up enough fight over these obvious partisan behaviour by government bodies towards National.

    Opposition parties grow a spine, fight back!

    Like the councillors to the ports of Auckland, more spine from a soggy teabag.

    Be accountable and make others accountable.

  9. repateet 9

    The music satire wasn’t an ad and was banned and the Rugby News glossy John Key All Black was an ad but wasn’t banned.

    The latter may have helped Key but it certainly sullied the All Blacks and the Rugby News.

  10. Scintilla 10

    “Up here on Planet Key, in the land where the rich are free … ” Oh, yeah!
    Brilliant! Text campaign to get the radio stations to play it? Let’s start with Kim Hill tomorrow.

    • Brewer 10.1

      Yess! Get it out there. Send links to the youtube clip to all your friends, request it on radio, keep playing it, get the hits up there. Daren is, akshully, one of the best living kiwi exponents of electric blues. His other stuff deserves a listen and he’s on tour at the moment. Go see him and request Planet Key.

      • Clemgeopin 10.1.1

        +100. Well said!

      • Rosie 10.1.2

        It’s being played right now on Radio Active. They were one of the two radio stations in the country that were actually playing it when Darren Watson released it.

        The breakfast DJ has just done a spiel about the anger they felt at being censored at the time and given they criticise the Key Regime on a daily basis on that show they felt doubly aggrieved.

        The song has just finished as RedBird Jnr has committed to playing the song every day until John Key goes.

        And I agree, Darren Watson is a great Blues man

  11. Tom Gould 11

    Will the Electoral Commission person who made the decision to ban the song now resign having directly interfered in a free and fair election? Simple professional honour would require no less.

  12. Skinny 12

    Disgraceful judgment at the time.

    Planet Key won’t survive meteorite Sabin when it hits. Extinction time is coming.

  13. Richard McGrath 13

    Delighted that the High Court has come down in favour of freedom of speech.

  14. Penny Bright 14

    So when a candidate holds a ‘home made’ placard, which expresses his political opinion on who people should vote for (the person being Winston Peters – not him), and it’s not a ‘paid advertisement’ – then it’s arguably equally not a breach of the Electoral Act?

    Any thoughts on this one?

    Penny Bright

    • freedom 14.1

      my first instinct Penny, would be anything held up by a candidate is to be seen as election-related material and should be actioned accordingly. If it’s a home made sign, then adding an authorising statement shouldn’t be too hard.
      Although which Party’s statement gets used in that scenario is a crinkly one. 😕

      That said, and pondering their hyper-sensitivity, I am amazed the electoral commission haven’t gone further than nobbling political satire. What will their next move be? Slapping “authorising statement” stickers on babies?

  15. freedom 15

    an interview from RNZ last night is here
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20173531
    the Darren Watson interview is first up

    the judgement itself is here
    https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1699927/watson-and-jones-vs-electoral-commission.pdf

    and some simple reality is here

    Darren Watson said the High Court ruling overturning that decision was good for free speech and creative freedom.
    “I think [the decision is] so important. Right from the start, I’ve known this hasn’t been about my little song – which is going to be forgotten,” he said.
    “It’s about every artist in New Zealand having a right to say what they want, even if that involves a political statement.”

    • Sable 15.1

      Until our lord and master decides freedom of speech only applies to him and his rich mates and changes the law.

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