Saying a lot while saying very little

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, May 6th, 2011 - 13 comments
Categories: parliamentary spending - Tags: , ,

In a few short replies, the Nats said so much this week about their out of touch, entitled worldview. The stories have been rolling out almost too fast, in fact. Each needs following up, each minister needs to be hounded, but there are so many targets.

Hon Annette King: If he is satisfied that his Government has done all that it can to help low-income families, will he accept the challenge from Melissa Voice in Timaru to walk a week in her shoes in order to experience how the rising cost of living is affecting people, because despite her being debt-free and budgeting carefully, the cost of basic items continues to rise and she has found that she is worse off than she used to be; if not, why not?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY: No.

Hon Trevor Mallard: Will he rule out appointing Don Brash as Minister of Finance at any time in the future?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I can absolutely rule him out for this term.

Hon PETE HODGSON (Labour—Dunedin North) to the Prime Minister: At what precise time and date were the “security related” meetings of 11 December 2009, that he referred to yesterday, diaried?

Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister) on behalf of the Prime Minister: To the best of the Prime Minister’s recollection, the meeting was arranged during the afternoon of 11 December 2009

Hon Trevor Mallard: Would the Prime Minister have arrived on time to the security meeting he outlined yesterday if he had taken a car?

Hon BILL ENGLISH: I believe that it is not in the public interest to provide those details.

Patrick Gower: You spend about five times as much as the other ministers. Why is your petrol bill so high?

Judith Collins: Ah, well, Paddy, it’s… All my spending is within the rules

David Shearer: Will he now undertake to ask the Minister of Foreign Affairs why he did not use commercial airline services, which would have cost about $4,000 and not at least $75,000?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY: No, because I accept the logic that was put forward by the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time.

Key on his taxpayer-funded DPS entourage: I can’t explain that because it’s not accountable to me.

The wave of stories has built to a tsunami. The only danger is that when they recede, there will be John Key in his scuba gear, which he’ll just strip off and go back to eating corgis and blushing at the sight of Elton John like before.

Stories need to be woven in to a narrative. The Greens and Labour need to hold on to each of the examples of excess and arrogance we’ve seen over the past few weeks and raise them again and again and again as the counterpoint to their own narrative of that they will be a government that works for the many, not the few.

13 comments on “Saying a lot while saying very little ”

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  1. Lanthanide 1
    6 May 2011 at 12:29 pm

    “Hon Trevor Mallard: Will he rule out appointing Don Brash as Minister of Finance at any time in the future?
    Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I can absolutely rule him out for this term.”
     
    This itself is very telling. He’s quick to rule out Winston, Hone, selling Kiwibank, touching pensions, but won’t rule out giving Brash the reins.

    • todd 1.1
      6 May 2011 at 1:03 pm

      Shudder! Don Brash as PM, now that’s a scary thought.

    • Draco T Bastard 1.2
      6 May 2011 at 2:22 pm

      And he only ruled out selling Kiwibank and changing pensions in the first term. It seems that he likes putting time limits on his promises.

      • Lanthanide 1.2.1
        6 May 2011 at 3:03 pm

        No, he ruled out both of them for as long as he is prime minister.

        The kiwibank promise came after Bill English mooted selling it in their 2nd term, there was a public outcry and Key said they wouldn’t do it, and then re-iterated again by saying he wouldn’t do it as long as he was prime minister.

    • Luxated 1.3
      6 May 2011 at 10:45 pm

      Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I can absolutely rule him out for this term.

      Which is fairly obvious really, Brash isn’t in parliament this term. Key made no statement ruling Brash out as Finance Minister after the coming election.

      • Tanz 1.3.1
        6 May 2011 at 10:51 pm

        Arn’t you sorry that Brash just missed out on becoming PM? Don’t you wish. Then Brash could have ruled Key out. Oh well!

        • Luxated 1.3.1.1
          6 May 2011 at 11:16 pm

          Actually what I wish at this moment in time is to know what you’re on.

  2. randal 2
    6 May 2011 at 1:44 pm

    hey knock it off you guys. this is just the little people lording it over everyone else why they have their TURN. they only little people but they got big psychological desires to be bigshots by emulating their betters. i.e. men in black with mouthpieces and wristwatch radios etc etc etc. pathetic really how they can squander the states resources just to make themselves feel like the real thing.

  3. PeteG 3
    6 May 2011 at 3:22 pm

    The out of touchness, she burns! The stories of perk abuse have been rolling out almost too fast, in fact. Each needs following up, each minister needs to be hounded, but there are so many targets. The galling thing is in a fortnight the Nats will tell us ‘everyone has to tighten their belts’.

    What an odd coincidence, an onslought of nitpicking at a time like this. I wonder what could be happening.

    Stories need to be woven in to a narrative.

    Ah. Ok, why didn’t you just say that in the first place. Bad rich/Nats.
    The May strategy was already a bit obvious.

  4. joe bloggs 4
    6 May 2011 at 10:31 pm

    Must be hard for you lot over here on the far far left – being so irrelevant in today’s political environment!

    • Pascal's bookie 4.1
      6 May 2011 at 10:36 pm

      You wouldn’t know the far far left if one came along and nationalised your bollix.