Posts Tagged ‘John Key’
Questions about the teapot investigation
So, it’s been announced the cameraman who recorded the pre-election ‘cup of tea’ between John Key and John Banks in November last year won’t be prosecuted. Stuff.co.nz reported: Police will not lay charges over the “teapot tape” saga and say freelance cameraman Bradley Ambrose has received a warning. Assistant Police Commissioner Malcolm Burgess held a […]
Bryan Gould’s must-read on the changing face of John Key
Wow. I’m still catching up on things that popped up while I was away and largely offline this week. Read this analysis from the nothing-if-not-polarising Bryan Gould in the NZ Herald: Tougher approach hints this term is Key’s last … What is now clear is that the goal of the first term was simply to […]
Paying for results
Congratulations (whether they’re deserved or not) to spin doctor Matthew Hooton (last discussed in Matthew Hooton and the exquisite agony of being a paid shill). Look: Oh. Read Patrick Gower’s column here. – P
Radio station referred to police over pre-election ‘Prime Minister’s hour’
Not a great look for RadioLIVE just as their excellent TV spots boosting their ‘breaking news’ brand get under way. Ouch. Breaching the Broadcasting Act. I preferred the Broadcasting Standards Authority’s description of John Key’s (let’s-face-it:-pretty-entertaining-but-maybe-for-the-wrong-reasons) ‘politics free’ radio show as ‘light flim-flam and frivolity‘. No doubt the legal advice RadioLIVE sought prior to the broadcast […]
As predicted, tea pot tapes released
I predicted here and elsewhere that the recording of the now infamous election campaign ‘cup of tea‘ between ACT Epsom candidate John Banks and National Party leader John Key or a transcript would be released … I called that “inevitable“. Viz, yesterday: The recording is now available at multiple locations. This ‘cleaned up audio’ version […]
Losing the shine? Maybe. We’ll see.
Post mortems don’t always render a conclusive or even useful diagnosis, especially when tackling multi-faceted puzzles like an election campaign, but I nodded as I read TV3 political editor Duncan Garner’s round up of the political year … in which he shares some of the same conclusions I expressed in my pre-election post Teflon John […]
Is NZ’s international reputation as a democracy taking a pasting?
I started to reply to a comment by Craig, who suggested that if Bradley Ambrose is successful in his call for the High Court to declare the ‘cup of tea’ conversation “not a private communication” that that (in Craig’s view) would be “a sad day for privacy in this country” Oh yes? I thought. What […]
Bradley Ambrose takes the initiative
This is a smart move. His lawyer says Ambrose has been slandered and vilified by some in the National Party operating in election mode. They’ve treated him as if he had no reputation to defend. With loose language about Ambrose’s actions being ‘illegal’ and ‘unethical’ being relentlessly squirted at him … by increasingly desperate-sounding National […]
‘public interest’ vs ‘the issues that matter’
Reflecting on John Key’s clearly-scripted talking point before he ‘stormed out’ of a media conference yesterday, it seems to me the National Party spin doctors (and lawyers?) will be emphatic that their man Key NOT under any circumstances admit to any ‘public interest’ in the cup of tea tapes. Thus, the apparent attempt to smother […]
Leave John Key Alone
Oh dear. Now he’s a subject of piteous mockery. (I assume.) Whoever ‘runawaywithgypsies‘ is, I’m sure Cameron will have the number plates of their motorcycles up on his website days before the NZ Herald. – P
Teflon John Key under pressure over tape
Politics is all about responding to emergencies — and I don’t mean a container ship grounding itself on a reef. From the NZ Herald’s John Armstrong today: John Key insists there is nothing on the secret tape of his “cup of tea” conversation with John Banks to cause him the slightest bother. If so, why […]
BSA finding: PM’s hour NOT electioneering — “light flim-flam and frivolity”
I did say in A dignified response to Labour’s complaint that I thought RadioLIVE would ‘no doubt’ have sought advice before going ahead with The Prime Minister’s Hour … it seems that was good advice — at least as far as the Broadcasting Standards Authority is concerned. See: Complaints over RadioLIVE’s Prime Minister’s Hour not upheld […]
Hansard can be a real bitch, eh Mr Key?
Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers, Questions to Members 4 October 2011 – Hansard Hon Phil Goff: Is it correct that New Zealand’s credit rating with those two agencies is now the same as Spain’s—a country that National has constantly derided as being an economy in trouble? Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I cannot […]
