Well he would wouldn’t he

Written By: - Date published: 1:05 pm, August 3rd, 2015 - 52 comments
Categories: identity, john key, schools - Tags: , ,

He could have just apologised, but instead:

John Key disputes claims he said Maori language month would be ‘boring’

The Prime Minister disputes a teenager’s claims that he said a Maori language month would be “boring”.

John Key was alleged to have made the comment, which “upset and embarrassed” a 16-year-old girl when he visited a school assembly at Waiuku College in South Auckland, last week.

“I did not say that,” he told TVNZ.

Well he would deny it wouldn’t he.

Classmate Trent Brown Marsh, 16, said the girl was in tears after assembly and was considering taking time off school because she felt embarrassed. He said his friend was “basically laughed at”. “She’s still upset. She doesn’t want to go back to school,” Brown Marsh said. “John Key made the whole school laugh in a rude way.”

Whatever the exact phrasing it is clear that Key was insensitive. It shouldn’t be hard to find more pupils willing to comment if any journalist looks in to it. Or Key could just do the decent thing and apologise.

52 comments on “Well he would wouldn’t he ”

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  1. One Anonymous Bloke 1
    3 August 2015 at 1:13 pm

    From the original Fairfax story:

    “Key said he preferred keeping it to a week of Maori language celebrations and that people would get “bored” by a month.”

    So no, he didn’t say “boring”. Slow clap for John.

    • McFlock 1.1
      3 August 2015 at 1:28 pm

      Interestingly enough, the original article on stuff has a quote from “A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister” basically spinning it… and yet if he hadn’t said it at all, why didn’t she correct the story then?

      Either she was spinning what he actually said, or she was spinning without having any idea what he actually said (but figured it sounded like something he’d say).

      Both options are possible from this bunch of corrupt clowns – and similarity to reality is purely coincidental.

  2. shorts 2
    3 August 2015 at 1:14 pm

    Key gets media time to pour scorn on the girls claims, further embarrassing her…. and abusing his power to do so

    If there’s an adult in the media and one key’s office – could they explain how this isn’t acceptable behaviour for civilised beings

  3. redeye 3
    3 August 2015 at 1:37 pm

    “Or Key could just do the decent thing and apologise.”

    Yeah right. It’s highly unlikely an apology would have stopped this blog post? Like the way it stopped this blog from continually raising the pony tail thingy, even though he more than apologised.

    There’s is nothing short of joining the Labour party that our PM could do that would satisfy the posters here. Even when espouses Labour Party policies, like the flag referendum, he gets shit canned.

    Fair enough I suppose. He is keeping you from the baubles.

    • McFlock 3.1
      3 August 2015 at 1:54 pm

      lol

      He could just stop being a dick in the first place. He’s the fucking prime minister.

      But typical tory, thinking it’s all about the baubles…

      • Chris 3.1.1
        3 August 2015 at 2:22 pm

        And there you go. “He could stop being a dick in the first place”.

        Desperate much?

        • McFlock 3.1.1.1
          3 August 2015 at 2:56 pm

          Not “desperate” as such, but I would definitely prefer a prime minister who looked like he wanted the job and didn’t have a habit of this sort of bullshit.

          Not many grown men need to be told to stop pulling women’s hair, or make teenagers cry and then call them liars. At least Bolger wasn’t a dick. I still despise his government, but Bolger always behaved more like a prime minister than a primary school kid. And not one of the smarter kids in primary school, either.

        • jackp 3.1.1.2
          4 August 2015 at 9:44 am

          It’s not desperate. I use to vote National but having to witness the lies and deceit of Key for the past 6 years, yep, he is pretty much a dick. When he goes off the Crosby/Textor que cards, he is a royal screw up. That’s why he always back tracks and again lies to the public. He is no leader. If the media reported the facts, he would have been gone a long time ago. He is also protected from answering questions in Parliament by David Carter. He is well protected, American style.

    • Anne 3.2
      3 August 2015 at 4:28 pm

      … continually raising the pony tail thingy, even though he more than apologised.

      It was a Clayton’s apology. He never apologised for pulling the young woman’s hair repeatedly over a six month period… and admit it was wrong of him to do it. All he did from memory was to say he was sorry if it had caused her concern – or words to that effect.

    • North 3.3
      3 August 2015 at 8:17 pm

      How the fuck does one “more than apologise” Redeye ? Do you mean he was ‘fulsome’ ? Suggest you check the dictionary before you lazily and ignorantly adopt that one……

      You get some FlyBuys for your pathetic contribution did you ?

    • redeye 3.4
      4 August 2015 at 3:13 pm

      So it turns out he was respectful and detailed in his answer. But the lefty press decided you lot are easier to collect click bait from.

      An apology for this post would seem to be in order.

  4. maui 4
    3 August 2015 at 1:49 pm

    Key said he spoke to Brown Marsh on the day of the alleged incident and commended him for a mihi he gave following an opening of a school building.

    That gives weight to the allegation, because it’s coming from someone respected and trusted within the school. Not just a “classmate”.

    but Key said on Breakfast TV on Monday that another Fairfax reporter was present and backed his version of events.

    and

    “I spoke to the principal who said there had been a debate on Maori TV about this particular issue, so he had listened intently to my answer and said I was thoughtful, respectful and there was no issue.”

    So, Key abusing his power by leaning on others to say that they supported the comments. Funny how now both those witnesses are not available for comment.

    • shorts 4.1
      3 August 2015 at 2:02 pm

      I await TVNZ to talk to 3 of the girls school mate who will corroborate her side of the story

      Of course there is the very likely chance he didn’t use the actual word boring – rathert his actual answer was “boring” and left the girl feeling embarrassed because Key showed no empathy for the topic at hand nor the person during a week he should have been 100% supportive towards one of our national languages – a public relations disaster

      • emergency mike 4.1.1
        3 August 2015 at 7:24 pm

        Given that Key made shit up about the waitress accepting his apology with the wine, I’m not so inclined to believe his version of things this time either. Plus there’s also his epic history of an abusive relationship with the truth also. That’s what happens when you lie too much, no one believes a word you say. It’s not rocket science.

  5. tc 5
    3 August 2015 at 1:58 pm

    Key only apologises to those that threaten his grip on power……such as a certain law breaking blogger with a closet full of current national party skeletons.

    • Anne 5.1
      3 August 2015 at 3:10 pm

      Was going to be my point too tc.

      To my knowledge, the only person to ever receive an apology from JK is a thug called Cameron Slater. That Key’s response is always to [passively] discredit the ‘victim’ shows what a juvenile mind he actually possesses, and that he is not really fit to be in parliament let alone the prime minister.

      • tc 5.1.1
        3 August 2015 at 4:51 pm

        He’s exactly the type of PM the hollowmen sought, great back story, able to sell snow to eskimoes with a well honed deceptive manner proven over many successful years in merchant banking.

  6. Charles 6
    3 August 2015 at 2:04 pm

    Kinda curious, isn’t it, how nothing demeaning/teasing was said, but the girl is now suffering emotionally for it. Seems unlikely that a girl secure and confident enough to speak in front of the school and a PM, in the first place, would fall to pieces over nothing. Surely someone video’d the exchange. Then we’d see if it was Key being a doof head, or… nah, I’m pretty sure he’s just a doof head.

    A real statesman wouldn’t go into any situation looking for laughs from a crowd at a girl’s expense – wouldn’t even leave a chance for it, wouldn’t even consider it. But a statesman wouldn’t be pulling anyone’s hair either… good grief.

    Convenient that the Principal was “unavailable” when asked for comment, too. Surely a principal would know how to talk about, and too, children, to smooth over a misunderstanding… if it was a misunderstanding. It doesn’t add up.

    Anyhoo, I think that John Key’s idea has some merit when applied correctly: that if you take something that should be short, but extend the application to twice or three times the useful period, people get confused, tired, and lose interest. So for the next National Party Government, I suggest shortening the term to one week. I’m sure he’ll agree.

    I think it’d be great to have a Maori Language Month. With just a week, you could blink and it’d be gone – no time for the feel of something new happening to create anticipation or celebration. It’d give people a chance to actually use the words in everyday life, in real-life situations. The ideas mentioned off-the-cuff in the news stories around this are good, who knows what could be achieved with a bit of creativity. NZ Music Month turned (or perhaps accelerated) home-grown sounds from something a specific subculture knew about into a what now looks like an activity (and industry) firmly accepted by the mainstream*, within a few years.

    Why not have The Weather read in Te Reo Māori for a month? Why not have our currency printed entirely in Maori? Why not have the simple stuff like entry and exit signs to stores in Maori? Would we suddenly not find the door? If you already can’t speak English, and everyone else knew both languages, what difference would it make? Why not a creeping integration, starting with the easy stuff, to assist an environment that supports, offers and “nurtures” Maori language back to what could arguably be called it’s rightful place as a language of this country? Why not? Boring? No way. The prospect is exciting, it’s unique. It might send the language purists into apoplexy, but that’s the cost of making a widely accessible and concerted effort; an historical opposite to beating children into not speaking Maori at school, like in “the good old days”.

    *Yeah sure there are various on-going nightmares in that industry, and mainstream acceptance isn’t a measure of anything or everything good, but prior to The Big Push you had to listen to student radio to hear NZ music. Now you’ll hear it in the most unlikely of public places. If you’ve ever heard it spoken fluently, “every-day interpersonal Maori” (not just the public speaking kind) sounds as beautiful as any old European language. Who wouldn’t want that (even if only as spectators) as a central feature of a (perhaps reluctantly, but unavoidable) shared culture?

    • shorts 6.1
      3 August 2015 at 2:17 pm

      Key said something along the lines of: a month would see the media focus wane – and in this he is entirely correct, but Te Reo Maori and Maori Language Week isn’t about media cycles nor headline grabbing… and here he shows his cultural insensitivity and ignorance

      A month allows all manner of things to happen in a organic and community based level rather than bang boom wow and gone manner that “weeks” tend to have

      Do we only care about media headlines or actually doing things that matter?

  7. cogito 7
    3 August 2015 at 2:12 pm

    Key vs young girl. Sounds familiar. How long before he comes up with a couple of bottles of Chateau BS to shut her up.

  8. Chris 8
    3 August 2015 at 2:27 pm

    This is a seriously desperate thread. One day I hope both sides of the political fence will be heard via reasoned debate rather than ‘what ever you say is wrong’. It is boring, lacking imagination and smacks of I HATE JOHN KEY!!! And before I get the abuse, I said as much when it was the I HATE HELEN CLARK brigade. Weak!

    • maui 8.1
      3 August 2015 at 3:06 pm

      It’s called bullying Chris. Something that you seem oblivious to or quite happy to ignore. It’s definitely not something a Prime Minister should be partaking in.

      • stigie 8.1.1
        3 August 2015 at 4:24 pm

        Good grief, Helen Clark would have said diddums, move along, nothing to see here.

    • cogito 8.2
      3 August 2015 at 3:08 pm

      “reasoned debate”

      Like what John Key dishes up every week in the House?

    • Stuart Munro 8.3
      3 August 2015 at 4:07 pm

      Goes with personality politics mate. Someone blows the last of their credibility and the All Blacks won’t wanna do threeways with them any more. It’s cruel – exactly in proportion to the inappropriate celebratising – which in Key’s case has been massive. When that bubble bursts it’ll be like the Taupo eruption or Gerry Brownlee’s colon – a pretty significant biohazard.

    • North 8.4
      3 August 2015 at 8:28 pm

      You collecting FlyBuys too Chris ? Or just enjoying the grand sense that your piss meanderings are worth something when stamped “KeyManderings”. What’re you gonna do when Mr Gauche departs NZ fingers in the air a la buffoon Sir Boob Jones ? Leaving you a shell of a man/woman ?

  10. Robert Guyton 10
    3 August 2015 at 3:19 pm

    There must be, somewhere, record of the Prime Minister speaking in Maori, if even just a ‘kia ora’ or a ‘he tangata koretake au’ – surely? Bill English does okay, because he applied himself to the task of learning so the Prime Minister, given his responsibilities, must have squeezed out a phrase or two somewhere along the line.

  11. Old Mickey 11
    3 August 2015 at 3:32 pm

    I thought Paul Moon’s article was insightful regarding Te Reo.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11488775

    This sounds like a beat up on John Key, especially when the ‘friend’ of the student (not the student involved) is the one speaking….shades of Roofus Painter perhaps ? If he made her cry, that is bad form, say sorry, move on. Thought Winsotn Peters lead the pack with dumb comments regarding Samoan Sam being better qualified to lead corrections….

  12. The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 12
    3 August 2015 at 4:06 pm

    I am upset.

    Who is going to apologise to me?

  13. Morrissey 13
    3 August 2015 at 4:43 pm

    Jim Mora was bending over backwards to parse the Prime Minister’s words this afternoon. His guests Jeremy Elwood and Guy Ryan were unsympathetic to Key’s latest lapse in behaviour, and were clearly not impressed by Mora’s mealy-mouthedness.

  14. Alpha Z 14
    3 August 2015 at 8:28 pm

    Key said he would never give an answer with “an intention to embarrass someone or make someone upset”.

    Is that the truth or a lie ?

    Have you heard him speak in parliament or seen his behaviour during parliament question time?

    • Lanthanide 14.1
      3 August 2015 at 8:38 pm

      He doesn’t consider the opposition to be people, so it’s not a lie.

    • Anne 14.2
      3 August 2015 at 8:50 pm

      Have you heard him speak in parliament or seen his behaviour during parliament question time?

      eg. the throat slitting gesture to Labour leader, Phil Goff immediately following the attempt by a desperate person to jump off the debating chamber balcony.

      The irony was it occurred above the Labour benches so, if the person had succeeded, it was a Labour MP (or two) who would have been seriously injured possibly killed. But Key was only concerned for himself – no-one else. That should have been a huge eye opener for voters but the significance of the incident floated over the tops of their heads.

    • Alpha Z 14.3
      3 August 2015 at 9:22 pm

      ~ What about the pony tail pulling? Was that not ’embarrassing someone or making someone upset”?

      ~ And what about his apology to Kim Dot Com? Was that not ’embarrassing someone or making someone upset”?

      ~ I think he also apologised to Slater for something.

  15. North 15
    3 August 2015 at 8:42 pm

    Have you heard the bastard in Parliament when the high pitched giggle gets a roll on ? And the “GessArmGaaarttts !” ? The spittle is a biohazard I’m certain of it. Only thing that makes him vaguely ‘man-connected’ is that weirdness about Richie McCaw.

  16. Incognito 16
    3 August 2015 at 9:19 pm

    The PM visits a college and takes answers at the assembly and there’s not one recording of it!?

    • ZTesh 16.1
      4 August 2015 at 8:39 pm

      Or a single other witness to support the claim that he belittled the student and called it boring. Very strange.