Your PM at work for you

Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, September 20th, 2011 - 38 comments
Categories: john key, leadership, national, superannuation - Tags: ,

Two news snippets yesterday seemed to me to capture the essence of John Key PM.  The first:

Govt rejects ‘fairer’ pension scheme suggestions

The Prime Minister said he has “too much on his plate” to act on recommendations to make the pension scheme fairer.

This wasn’t the big, contentious stuff like raising the age of eligibility. Key is rejecting minor, sensible changes out of hand:

Now the Government has also rejected some smaller suggestions included in her report. “It’s disappointing because I thought the last three recommendations that we were waiting for an answer for, were about fairness,” Crossan said.

Too busy to take action? Can’t be bothered? Nice one John. On to the second example:

Quake insurance coming right – Key

The insurance situation in Christchurch will settle down and more companies are coming into the market, Prime Minister John Key says.

Any idea when it will “settle down” John? Want to put a time frame on that? Because I can tell you just from the examples that I know that insurance hassles are making life hell for people in Christchurch right here and now.

Mr Key said some people in Christchurch were able to get insurance but others were struggling.

“There are people coming into the market,” he said. “Lloyds of London put together a syndicate that insured a property the other day.

Really? Seriously? Lloyds of London, one of the biggest insurance companies in the world, has but together a syndicate that insured “a property” “the other day”? One? One property? And this is a sign that quake insurance is coming right?

Perhaps the best thing that John Key PM can do for NZ is go on another nice long holiday and let Bill English take over.

38 comments on “Your PM at work for you ”

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  1. ghostwhowalksnz 1
    20 September 2011 at 7:51 am

    The Lloyds syndicate deal was probably for something like a shopping mall.

    New homeowners ? They can just leave their house un- completed till the insurers are ‘ready’

  2. vto 2
    20 September 2011 at 7:53 am

    he is such a lightweight.

  3. Bill 3
    20 September 2011 at 8:03 am

    Why hasn’t the Fat Controller simply issued an ultimatum to the insurance industry along the line of that if they don’t insure Ch/ch and peg any premiums to nothing above x%, then the entire insurance industry in NZ will be brought into public ownership?

    Insurance companies want, above all, to make money. They would have played ball if faced with the prospect of losing an entire market, ie NZ.

    As it is, they are the pipers calling the tune and the Fat Controller is simply jiggling with a big fat frown on his coupon.

    • queenstfarmer 3.1
      20 September 2011 at 9:13 am

      Why hasn’t the Fat Controller simply issued an ultimatum to the insurance industry… then the entire insurance industry in NZ will be brought into public ownership

      You need to learn the difference between insurance and re-insurance. The NZ insurance companies (which could theoretically be nationalised) only actually insure a small % of the risk. Most of the risk is covered by reinsurers. These are international companies that can’t be “brought into public ownership”.

      It is critical to get the reinsurers on-side, or else the entire NZ industry that you want the Govt to take over, will virtually cease to exist.

      • Draco T Bastard 3.1.1
        20 September 2011 at 1:31 pm

        Actually, the best thing we could do is tell the re-insurers to eff off and nationalise insurance. Better service, better premiums and no money heading offshore to over-fill some parasites wallet.

        • Enough is Enough 3.1.1.1
          20 September 2011 at 1:51 pm

          There are billions of dollars floating in now, and floodiing in next year, from off shore reinsurers Draco.

          Where would you expect that cash to come from if we told them to eff off.

          • Draco T Bastard 3.1.1.1.1
            20 September 2011 at 6:29 pm

            Our taxes. Contrary to what you believe, money is not a resource and Chch will be built entirely with our own resources. Foreign money coming means absolutely nothing.

  4. scotty 4
    20 September 2011 at 8:13 am

    He also pulled out the bullshit line he used in the Hardtalk interview.

    something like,” For every property thats having insurance issues ,I can show you one that dosen’t.
    Excepted without question by MSM as usual.

    • drx 4.1
      20 September 2011 at 8:57 am

      >>For every property thats having insurance issues ,I can show you one that doesn’t.

      SO did he say that there are 50% having insurance problems?
      That seems excessive!!

  5. Pascal's bookie 5
    20 September 2011 at 8:17 am

    John Pagani tracks Key’s shifting rhetoric and positions here:

    http://johnpagani.posterous.com/do-the-same-standards-apply-to-key

  6. ECOGIRL 6
    20 September 2011 at 8:22 am

    No not Bill English to take over. We would have a further mess.

    Labour with Phill Goff to take over, with the plan and compassion.

    Also, why Lloyds of London? Am sick to death of foreign ownership of everything in NZ. How can we own OUR FUTURE when every Tom, Dick and Harry from off shore runs everything and silos of money leave the country daily.
    Buy house insurance with KIWI BANK, its OURS

    • insider 6.1
      20 September 2011 at 10:38 am

      What we are doing is asking those overseas people to please share some of our risk. If you want the whole risk to fall on you, good luck but I wouldn’t want that bill. Just as many hands make light work, so many pockets lowers the premiums.

      • bbfloyd 6.1.1
        20 September 2011 at 11:04 am

        don’t talk drivel insider…….. even for you, that was utter rubbish….. this isn’t fantasyland…. walt disney isn’t about to fix things up so the beautiful swan does become the star…. this is reality….. where we have a spineless, utterly unimaginative prime minister, backed by sociopathic, insanely greedy corporate puppies, forcing a whole city to sit in the snow and wait while they use them for political cannon fodder…….

        and all because they are trying to cover for the fact that they threw our money away and now can’t deal with the events that followed…. through irresponsible, shortsighted incompetence coupled with a dangerous lack of vision…. or the foresight relevant to how societies actually function properly…..we now have, once more, a morally and intellectually bankrupt government with nothing but lies and propaganda to cover the paucity of leadership…..

        the day we get a fourth column worth more than a tin of goat shit, then we have some chance of true leadership being recognised for what it is, and vacuous crosby/textor manipulation for what it is in truth…. then, and only then, will the “grown up” debates so necessary be able to take place…

      • Draco T Bastard 6.1.2
        20 September 2011 at 1:33 pm

        The whole risk will fall on us anyway as the re-insurers and insurers up the premiums to boost their profits.

      • mik e 6.1.3
        21 September 2011 at 7:18 pm

        Our balance of payments has go worse virtually every year since 1974 having overseas investment has a big downslide.

      • mik e 6.1.4
        21 September 2011 at 11:22 pm

        They are prepared to take our money when everything is fine but when they have to do the job they are handsomely rewarded for these companies are no where to be found.

  7. headbanger 7
    20 September 2011 at 8:41 am

    John Key does not appear to understand the severity of this situation.
    No building work (apart from knocking things down) has happened in Canterbury in a whole year because of lack of insurance. Builders, buyers, sellers, renters, businesses – nothing. Plans cannot be started and previously finished homes sit empty. 
    Without insurance everything falls apart. No one between Ashburton and Kaikoura can even get new contents insurance! And what happens if companies stop renewing policies?
    Leaving it to the market will result in Christchurch becoming a ghost town in a very short time. For example, if people get their red-zone payouts before insurance is offered they CANNOT buy elsewhere in this region whether they want to or not! No bank will allow a mortgage on a property without insurance so they will all have to leave.
    Rather than taking on this problem like Labour, John Key is just hoping it will go away. Is Christchurch too big to fail? Key is gambling a $4 billion undeniable cost against a likely loss to the NZ economy of literally hundreds of billions of dollars bringing the entire country into recession if Christchurch does fail because of his lack of action.
    Labour’s plan is a breath of fresh air and finally gives this city and area some hope. Please let this happen!

  8. marsman 8
    20 September 2011 at 8:56 am

    John Key is the Prime Mincer of NZ, that’s what he does best, all the other stuff is just too much hard work for him. We MUST get rid of this pillock and his gang of plundering oafs.

  9. thejackal 9
    20 September 2011 at 9:13 am

    What is the point in having insurance if they renege of the deal? Without a strong government ensuring that the insurers do their jobs, we’re going to have a Christchurch left in dust. I have absolutely no faith that the ineffectual governance of National with the flip flopping John Key and bumbling of Gerry Brownlee is going to do anything but give their mates large payouts in some sort of crony dream come true that is a nightmare for Christchurch. New Zealand needs Christchurch, let’s get a government that makes sure it’s rebuilt.

    • Draco T Bastard 9.1
      20 September 2011 at 1:42 pm

      Without a strong government ensuring that the insurers do their jobs…

      The government is owned by the corporations and it’s been that way for around three decades. Actually having to pay out would cut into the insurance companies profits and so the government is working to protect those profits by letting the insurance dodge the claims.

  10. Tigger 10
    20 September 2011 at 9:14 am

    He’s far too busy making vacuous complaints to the BSA to worry about little stuff!

  11. Anthony 11
    20 September 2011 at 9:14 am

    He does have a lot on his plate, like figuring out another excuse to stand next to the All Blacks during the national anthem.

  12. Wyndham 12
    20 September 2011 at 9:20 am

    No problem to bail out SCF (billions) but to help ChCh citizens by buying up land for sections (millions) and then on-selling them at cost, is not affordable. According to the NACT spokesman on finance, John Key.

    At least he’s appeared in public again after disappearing following the RWC opening transport fiasco.

  13. Adrian 13
    20 September 2011 at 9:56 am

    A mate of mine, a builder ( with a site managers certificate ) has been “invited” to work in Chch, he turned it down because he found out that he would be paid $40 an hour but charged out at $102 an hour by Fletchers. Can anybody confirm this disparity in rates? If it is true it is the biggest rort in years. P.s. Not in a recession? A small town on state highway in top of S.I is 30% down on tourist and passing thru turnover.

    • marsman 13.1
      20 September 2011 at 11:15 am

      Didn’t Shipley hand NZ Forest Products to Fletchers on a plate? Is the same Shipley not on the Board of Directors of Fletchers? Isn’t the same Shipley also being paid to help oversee the rebuild of Christchurch? Corruption anyone?

      • tc 13.1.1
        20 September 2011 at 11:12 pm

        Shipley’s also ensuring Genesis play their part in the nat’s generator shuffle so they suck the best part of a billion out of the power sector via the ‘special’ dividend meridian paid them from Genesis’s borrowed purchase value ….that’s scandalous in it’s own right as they’ve effectively burgled it from the generation platform. No extra capacity, just about a billion poorer thanks to some more of that bankster styles.

        As for fletchers, same old same old….and a large reason why construction in NZ is overpriced because Fletchers have a monopoly or virtual one in Gib, roofing etc.etc watch this get even worse and non retrievable in some industrys if they blag another term but hey that’s all part of the hollow mens master plan.

    • Vicky32 13.2
      20 September 2011 at 3:58 pm

      A mate of mine, a builder ( with a site managers certificate ) has been “invited” to work in Chch,

      A relative of mine who was a builder did go to Christchurch to work, and died of a heart attack just weeks later – he was afaik vastly over-worked..

  14. randal 14
    20 September 2011 at 10:03 am

    JK’s government is rapidly turning into a Knee Jerk style operation similar to the pinhead who reacts to the last thing anybody said to them.

  15. Tombstone 15
    20 September 2011 at 10:09 am

    FFS! When are people going to wake up to this incompetent bunch of clowns in Govt and start demanding a lot better from them?! I live in Christchurch and believe you me, people are leaving in droves. The recovery effort is a shambles and people are growing seriously angry about it now. From the CBD VIP tours to the ongoing problems with insurance and EQC payouts the whole thing has gone from one bloody disaster to another and Key should be arseholed as Prime Minister as far as I’m concerned because he’s the big cheese and he’s the man who ultimately has the final say. Time to stop apologizing for these buggers and time to get Christchurch rebuilt and back online. This is hurting the entire country so people voting National need to seriously think about that when it comes to the election. As for the Fat Controller and Sutton – f*cking hopeless, the pair of them! They can piss off as well along with CERA!

  16. vto 16
    20 September 2011 at 8:10 pm

    Our PM came onto the telly tonight and I couldn’t hear a thing because of the racket and I thought I would like to hear what the duffer had to say until the very next thought when I remembered that even if you can understand what he says it is never anything worth anything and so the racket continued…

    did he say anything worthwhile?

    • mik e 16.1
      21 September 2011 at 7:22 pm

      Shokey.Whenever he is lying he speeds up his speaking and mumbles lower and lower till you can’t hear what he is saying.

  17. Frank Macskasy 17
    27 September 2011 at 1:00 am

    If foreign companies don’t want to insure ChCh properties, then we have to step up and do it ourselves.

    An idea I have is to re-build the old “State Insurance”, using the current EQC. Call it “EQC-Plus”, for want of a better term. http://fmacskasy.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/the-free-market-is-a-fair-weather-friend/

    No doubt neoliberals will balk at the idea and find reasons why this can’t be done.

    Ok, we listen to them.

    (Then we go ahead and do it anyway. If we listenened to neo-liberal naysayers all the time, we’d still be sitting in caves… )

    The idea is that EQC-Plus acts as a primary insurance company-of-last-resort (or even first resort!) and insures ChCh properties. This achieves two things;

    1. Tops up EQC which was depleted over the last year

    2. Gives security to homeowners so that banks will be confident enough to extend mortgages

    Once again, society (through the State) meets the needs of it’s citizens, whilst private companies twiddle their fingers.

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