Michael Reddell: Reserve Bank meeting the PM

There has been a flurry of coverage in the last couple of days after the Prime Minister told an interviewer yesterday not only that he thought the Reserve Bank should have cut the OCR by more/earlier, but that he had made this point to the Governor in a meeting with the Bank before the final OCR decision was made last week.

Bruce Cotterill: Planes, houses and double standards

I sometimes think we’re quite good at double standards. It’s one of our quirky little habits and it has surfaced again this week.

I’m referring to the hand-wringing over the Prime Minister’s decision to live in his own apartment in Wellington rather than in Premier House. In doing so he elected to receive the accommodation supplement that is available to politicians who primarily reside outside the capital. The keyboard warriors have been out in force on that one.

Mike Hosking: More evidence the PM can't handle tough questions

 

You'll be pleased to know the Prime Minister doesn’t have to be in Auckland to understand the lockdown 

Kudos to Barry Soper for being one of the last remaining press gallery operators who actually knows how to ask a proper question and insist on following it up. If you saw it yesterday, the Prime Minister has lost the ability to handle it. 

She's so used to the soft soap acquiescence of the rest of the gallery who are either asleep, spineless or apparatchiks. She was well and truly taken aback when old father-to-be Soper rocks up with a few nerve inducing questions around why she hadn't been to her hometown in months. And why she hadn't visited the very electorate that sent her to Parliament to represent them. 

Clive Bibby: The government's plans post Covid 19 are not what they seem

A weekend article written by Steve Elers of Massey University's School of Communications includes some interesting observations of the Prime Ministers character. I would recommend it to anybody who is concerned about the prospects for this nation as we try to reassert ourselves post Covid 19.

Elers attempts (successfully in my opinion) to establish a link between the ideological beliefs that formed the basis of the Prime Ministers former career (pre parliamentary politics) and those that drive her in her current position as Leader of this country.

He suggests that it is impossible for "the leopard to change its spots" and that the position she held on most issues and advocated for pre 2008 would most likely be the same today as it was then.

Karl du Fresne: Stop bullshitting us, prime minister

The day after winning re-election, prime minister John Key warned that one of the biggest risks his government faced in its third term was arrogance. What a pity he didn’t heed his own advice.

Over the past few weeks, we have observed a National government that seems determined to live up to every stereotype about third terms. It has been arrogant, smug and incompetent.

Worse than that, it appears to have undergone an integrity by-pass.

Karl du Fresne: How will history judge John Key?

I WONDER how history will judge John Key. On the strength of his performance so far, I think it might assess him quite harshly. Historians may look back on these years as a time when an economically feeble, socially dysfunctional New Zealand needed bold leadership, but instead had a prime minister who was content to tread water.

Frank Newman: Open letter to the Prime Minister

23 September 2010
The Prime Minister
John.key@parliament.govt.nz

Dear John

You have on a number of occasions ruled out having Sir Roger Douglas as a member of a National led cabinet, the most recent being this morning on Radio New Zealand (RNZ).

You stated on RNZ that the reason for excluding Sir Roger was his “far right agenda” is at odds with the policies of the National Party .

You are of course free to choose who you include or exclude from your executive and I have no issue whatsoever with you exercising that choice.

Could you please advise if there are sufficient differences between Mr Hone Harawira’s political views and the policies of the National Party for you to make a similar statement ruling him out of any future National led cabinet over which you preside.

Yours faithfully
Frank Newman

[NOTE: The Prime Minister’s reply will be posted on this blog.]

Mike Butler: Nats, tell Key what you think

Those who voted National in 2008 probably didn’t foresee that they were voting to further Maori Party goals. Prime Minister John Key has made that fringe party’s radical objectives mainstream by agreeing to: Fly the Tino Rangitiratanga flag of Maori sovereignty on government buildings on Waitangi Day; devolve about $1-billion a year to Maori social service providers; sign up to the United Nation's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and could enact a radical law change to give Maori de facto sovereignty over the foreshore, seabed, substrate, and airspace.

Mike Butler: Mr Key and the flag of disintegration

When Prime Minister John Key gave approval to fly the red, black and white “tino rangatiratanga” flag on the Auckland harbour bridge and other official buildings this Waitangi Day, did he realise he had agreed to a goal of the Maori sovereignty movement?
“Tino rangatiratanga”, which has become the most contentious phrase from the Maori language text of the Treaty of Waitangi, has become something of a rallying cry for proponents of Maori sovereignty, or Maori self-determination.