Something which has puzzled me in recent years is the Herald’s Matthew Hooton’s constant dismissive attitude to the John Key government as wasted years.
I say that in the context of my admiration for Hooton’s always consistent and intelligent appraisal of current events in the context of his (and my) belief in the market economy, in small government and liberalism. Well, last week I finally comprehended Hooton’s scorn for Key.
The light dawned when The Herald published an astonishing ignorant but revealing article by Key on why, if an American he’d vote for Trump.
In a nutshell Key said he has financial interests in America, has always believed in lower income taxes and Trump’s promised tax cuts would suffice to determine his vote.
The extraordinary thing about Key’s article was its astonishing shallowness.
For example, he correctly pointed out that Trump’s promised punitive taxes on Chinese imports was a cost which would solely be met by the American consumer.
But there’s a far bigger horror in Trump’s desire to isolate America from imports and have it revert to its own manufacturing which Key seemed oblivious to it.
That is the post-war growth of open markets through free trade which has been the greatest instrument for world prosperity in human history. Trump being oblivious to this is forgivable as he’s spectacularly ignorant, unread and basically stupid.
But there’s a much more alarming reason to condemn Key’s shallow judgment and that is that Trump sullies the highest public office in the world with his reliance on personal abuse and his total inability to speak more than two sentences without telling outright lies.
It was only after reading Key’s article that I finally comprehended Hooton’s steadfast derision for the Key years, specifically the wasted opportunity to make meaningful and desired changes Key blew.
His likeable affability aided by a wallowing Labour Party saw him able to coast along, enjoying being Prime Minister but blowing the opportunity to make meaningful change. In that sense he served himself and not the nation and Hooton’s condemnation has been 100% correct.
It’s now evident Key saw being Prime Minister solely in the context of a personal career highlight experience rather than any wider desire to build a better nation.
Disclosure – I don’t know Hooton.
22 Comments
I 100% agree with your assessment of John Key and his Govt -and yes they wasted opportunities to improve NZ “Inc.”
Unfortunately I think the current PM is from the same mould and is in the role for his own career enhancement and is certainly a manager not a strategic thinker
Wayne
Agreed Wayne also…
One of Keys biggest blunders was increasing GST: (an extra cost), on the masses after the GFC. The additional spend which would have otherwise been available would have helped the country out of recession earlier…
More recently, I attended an event when Key was the keynote speaker where Paula Benefit was the MC. The narrative was completed controlled, with no questions taken.
This appears to be a pattern with those who are more interested in self promotion and fair weather sailors, who are afraid to face the music.
Does Luxon not understand the $20 million per annum extra costs in financing of the new the Dunedin Hospital represent but one day of overseas bank profits..
Quite so, Then wouldn’t you think Govt would Invest all of its Development funding first into capitalizing Kiwi Bank and thense Loan these funds to the respective development Contractors and Councils so that infrastructure could be effected, Hospitals built. Surely the ACC and the Kiwi Bank could develop an Insurer for Councils and Contractors to stop this requirement being a conduit to overseas payments or rather pillaging of our economy. If Kiwibank’s capital and its management capacity were significantly strengthened, and if it were based on a policy to repeatedly redirect more investment locally, less customers would need to patronize the Australian dominated banks and we would see more economic resilience in multiple cycles internally of money moving through the community. The Govt has the Public Trust to secure estates and investment, The Govt has dispensed with the Ministry of Works, Why not replace the Ministry of works with a Professional Escrow Agency to protect works under development and workers undertaking development. Why not also create a professional agency of Clerk of works and Inspectors. This could be a managing and consulting Body with Registered individual licensed and insured Inspectors to carry out the physical inspections and audit of works. We need Authorities under Govt that work for the people and protect the economy not sub branches whose only underwriting is the hapless residential ratepayer.
But isn’t it true that in recent history all PMs with the possible exception of Helen Clark have all been “managers” and not “strategic thinkers”, plus one female who was demonstrably neither? On their records I would consider English and Joyce to have demonstrated some pretty good strategic thinking but in Labour after Clark there has been nobody. Disclaimer: I voted Labour only once in my life, long before Helen Clark arrived.
As noted John Key was affable when you met him, he had the mandate and highly competent people around him but stayed on the straight and narrow course, neither pushing the boundaries or annoying the fringes. A hugely wasted opportunity of highly talented individuals who could have made more meaningful change .Bill English would have pushed the social re engineering and it was NZ’s loss when he didn’t get elected PM . Instead we lost his social fix plans , $15billion unaccounted for , 80,000 kiwis and race relations set back 30 years.
I wonder whether Key is favouring Trump because Harris tells even bigger lies with a nice smile on her face. They are both poor presidential candidates in a Country run and influenced by multi billionaires, not them.
“Even bigger lies”, Daniel?
Please cite some examples. Tell you what, just the one would do.
https://x.com/Gigi214TX/status/1834409239399260656
I’m sure he is not alone in this. I believe many, perhaps a majority of, US citizens will vote against Harris rather than for Trump, just as they did against Clinton in 2016.
As Mrs Thatcher said “It used to be about trying to do something. Now it’s about trying to be someone.”
It’s about time Key’s use of the office of PM for his own gain is exposed .This literally did nothing constructive to assist in the development of the Country ,Yes he promoted bike trails- yeah right.Jus look how he has feathered his nest since leaving office.
Voting for an idiot like Trump on the grounds that you might get a few percentages reduced on Tax is like hoping for Cancer because it will help you lose weight. Just flat out stupid. Even Republicans like Dick Cheney are saying “Don’t vote for Trump”
I think Churchill said that you can trust Americans to do the right thing after every other avenue has been exhausted, so lets hope November is the end for the orange screaming gibbon.
With respect, Cheney is part of the military industrial complex and made a personal fortune out of sending his own private army into Iraq…
And he knows Trump will shut down these needless wars down that are only good if you’re in the business of making weapons…
Regardless of who the Americans vote in, both candidates are not worth a ton of fish….the choice is the lesser of two evils..
I’ve always referred to him as DonKey but I imagine that is slanderous, yet true.
The failure by Key, to use the cover of Labour’s own manifesto commitment to further raise the retirement age and obtain a 2-party consensus to do so, will come back and bite us. If the decision to move to age 67 eligibility for superannuation, subject to a 15 year incremental change process, had occurred in 2010, we would have been there by now.
Well that’s no surprise to me Sir Robert. There are some dark spots that have been well varnished over that even Mr Hooton is likely unaware of. The question has never be asked, nor explored – what was Mr Key doing in the years immediately prior and post the 87 Sharemarket Crash? Trump is a lunatic that posseses even one redeeming quality. Maybe one? A stand up comedian who is not afraid to have sane people laugh about him and not with him. Whilst some of the far leftist policies adopted by the Democrats are outright Liberalism ideals that begger belief, it’s a far better choice for the USA and the world to have Kamala and Tim in office, who will be moderated by the Senate, Congress and the GOP controlled Supreme Court, than a madman with a crazy billionaire from South Africa tagalong with JD and all the Zombies, awoken by Trump and his troops in 2016. Best light reading and viewing material for the rest of 2024.
Key’s judgement is best illustrated by ‘Stonewood Key’ a partnership in house building with the brothel-owning Chow family – renown for their appalling employment practices.
The adulation for the self-enriching Key has always been a mystery to me.
John Key believed less Government is better Government, get the bureaucracy out of the way & transfer resources to the front line, hard to disagree with that! A democracy doesn’t work well when a high proportion of the population has insufficient interest in education or employment & not fair to blame John Key entirely for this.
Hard to reconcile how nearly 200 years building this wonderful country can be damaged so extensively in such a short time by a few completely incompetent delusional MPs!
It is time Matthew Hooton started to be consistent, he has spent enough time blowing with the wind!
The sad thing about all western democracies, is that elections have become popularity contests, as the prior quote from Thatcher alludes to. The real power brokers stay hidden from view, leaving a variety of puppets to be placed in positions “of power” to assuage the citizens.
Our own system ensures that electorate MPs once elected, then have to align themselves with whatever policy the party hierarchy demands, rather than listen to their electorate and bring that into parliament. Party whips are used to make sure they toe the line. They then become salesmen for the party rather than representatives of the people.
This has been obvious from the commencement of his tenure as PM, although he and his government deserve credit for their adroit management of the fallout of the GFC. Key literally bumped into me recently as I was hobbling thorough the arrivals foyer at Auckland airport, a man with a mission towing a wheel bag who did not have time for large limping men getting in the way of him moving to his next destination.
A bit more interesting detail about Trump coming to light from a USA based journalist. Former Chief of the JCS saying what he couldn’t say whilst in office… https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-13-2024?publication_id=20533&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&r=1vxeoi
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