The scandals that hang around John Key's neck

John Key's cabinet has been the most scandal ridden in recent political history

The writing is definitely on the wall for the Key owned National Party. The list of disgraced MPs and forced resignations from the Cabinet from this administration is the worst in recent political history.
From Richard Worth, Pansy Wong, Nick Smith, Phillip Heatley, John Banks, Hekia Parata, Judith Collins and, now, Maurice Williamson the scandals are clear demonstrations of John Key's inability to act as a responsible and ethical PM. The questionable behaviour by the rank and file MPs like Garrett (ACT) and Aaron Gilmore add more to the public concern about the National-ACT government.
In the light of these scandals it should become obvious, even to the usually deaf John Key, that Judith Collins is, like so many of his cabinet, a liability not just to the National Party but to the reputation of the country and as such she must go and go quickly. (When Fran O'Sullivan, who usually shills loudly for the Key owned National Party, declares that Collins is a liability to the National Party & Government then one knows that the skids are truly under the PR created government of John "Smile, wave, scuttle and run" Key.
Despite Bill English's protestations at this weekend's National Party regiona conference it would be hard to find anyone who would believe in the competence of Key or his corporate crony hugging ministers especially as rumours of discontent, fueled by National blogger, Matthew Hooton, with Key within the National Party have begun to swirl in the blogosphere.
The disarray and sense of panicked lack of direction in the National Party was in clear evidence in the Judith Collins- John Key linked blogger's attempts to muddy the waters around the scandal of Maurice Williamson's ties with the $22000 Chinese donor to the National Party and, after being told that her complaint to TVNZ about the reporting of her Oravida dealings had been rejected
(Television New Zealand's rejection of a complaint from Justice Minister Judith Collins is another blow to the Justice Minister's battle with the media.
The complaint relates to a TVNZ Press Gallery report on One News in March, looking at revelations in Parliament about Oravida, but the state broadcaster has rejected her complaint following an investigation.
TVNZ declined to spell out the findings of its investigations, or the date of the rejection letter.
But it has been confirmed the minister was told well before her altercation in the weekend, when she accused TVNZ political journalist Katie Bradford of seeking intervention in a personal matter in 2010.), Collins' own vicious outburst attacking a TVNZ journalist by name followed up by trying to accuse the NZ First Deputy Leader of actions similar to that engaged in by Williamson and the messages of impending defeat on September 20th delivered by English at the Waipuna Lodge this weekend may have been supported by the substantial earthquake in Wellington which would have shaken Key's belief that he is truly a national treasure.

How the John Key owned National Party sees itself

John Key's policy making process... on sale to the highest foreign corporate bidder.

In view of the scandals around John Key and his cabinet, especially those around Judith Collins and Maurice Williamson, this cartoon is very appropriate.
The obvious desire to sell NZ law making and assets off to the highest bidder (donor to the favoured Key Charity - the National Party ) is amply demonstrated in this cartoon.

National Party Shaken, Stirred and Split.

The disaster ridden government of John, PinoKeyo, Key is reeling as another Cabinet Minister is enveloped in scandal.

Ever since Key became PM his cabinet has been known for scandal and questionable behaviour. From Key's dealings with Sky-City and Warner Bros to Richard Worth's forced resignation and Pansy Wong's disappearance from Botany to Phillip Heatley's credit card slips  and John Banks' donation slip ups through to Judith Collins and her Oravida connections with the associated large donations to the Key led National Party the Key administration has always looked to be one that was prone to act without due regard for the requirements of the Cabinet Manual and the behaviour expected by the voting public.

The National Party caucus has also been consumed by the closetted struggle for power and post Key leadership being fought out by Joyce and Collins which, up until Collins spoilt her chances with her arrogant denials of meeting and dealing with the Chinese Oravida company, had been kept out of scrutiny by the media.

It is, therefore, not surprising that so far 14 of Key's MPs have deserted the ship and headed for safer ground outside of politics.

We can, though, expect more to scuttle and run as the fall out from the latest scandal to spill out of the Key appointed cabinet hits the news media.

The scandal and fall out from Maurice Williamson's  involvement with Chinese businessman and National Party donor, Donghua Liu is yet another example of Key's bad judgement and ability to manage his party let alone the country. Key, if he was anyway responsible as a PM,  should demand that Williamson, along with Collins, offer their resignations and depart from politics and government.

Unfortunately for NZ John Key is seriously lacking in ethical leadership which should mean that, unless Williamson displays a sense of honour, all that will happen is a wet bus ticket slap and a smug "I'm reluxed about it" grin from Key as he smiles, waves, scuttles and runs. The usual strategy he has when the going gets tough... there is, thinks John, nothing like a quiet game of golf with a wealthy foreign donor to the National Party to calm the nerves.

Updated: 11.15 am: Maurice Williamson displays a sense of honour and resigns as Minister, leaving John Key to respond in his usual limp manner as he reels as his cabinet collapses around him.

 Here is the Taranaki report on Key's announcement:
Prime Minister John Key today announced he has accepted the resignation of Williamson as a minister.
"I have been made aware that Mr Williamson contacted police some time ago regarding their investigation of Mr Donghua Liu," Key said.
"Mr Williamson has assured me that he did not in any way intend to influence the Police investigation.
"However, Mr Williamson's decision to discuss the investigation with Police was a significant error of judgement.

One now must wonder why, if Key is "showing strength" in accepting Williamson's resignation as a Minister why he hasn't shown the same "strength of leadership" with his other scandal ridden Minister, Judith Collins? Is the decision made based on the number of golf games paid for plus the amount of donations received from wealthy cronies?

As the Herald editorial says: "The number of such incidents involving members of the Key administration has reached a concerning level. It seems almost as though the Cabinet Manual is an irrelevance unless media disclosure is guaranteed. How much of this behaviour is never revealed, hidden away tidily through "no surprises" - the insistence that bureaucrats warn politicians in advance of potentially embarrassing publicity?"

It is now up to the Herald and the other MSM to dig deeper into the Key administration and its willingness to take large donations from its wealthy mates in return for "making back room deals" in favour of the donors and reveal how naked the "emperor" really is when it comes to running a political party, running a Cabinet and running a government.  
Duncan Garner appears to be leading the charge with this RadioLive blog while Fran O'Sullivan, who is best known for her glowing reportage of the Key govt, made this very telling comment in her opinionista piece in the Herald:

Williamson - like too many of our senior politicians including Justice Minister Judith Collins with her pandering to Oravida's principals while she was supposed be in China carrying out her Justice portfolio duties - have been beguiled by relationships with "important foreign investors".
They should come down to earth.
The investors - like Liu and Stone Shi who has arguably had more ministerial attention than other NZ investors in the wake of the botulism scare - should not be treated differently to ordinary New Zealand citizens.
New Zealand's reputation will be damaged if they don't wake up soon.

Unfortunately for New Zealand our reputation has already been damaged - and that damage can be sheeted home to the Crosby-Textor created Prime Minister - John Key and his appointed cabinet.

The scrutiny that should follow from this major scandal should provide the voting public with even more evidence that the present government must fold its tent and depart in the ignomny it deserves.

Cabinet Appointees -stable or not ? a Key question.

The National cabinet has been appointed in the manner befitting an autocrat. Key has appointed a group of courtiers who, in the manner of the Fairy Tale Emporer, will, on seeing his new clothes, inform him that they are a perfect fit even though all other observers can recognise the imperfections, the fakery and appeal to vanity that is the reality of those clothes. The new cabinet will soon find that their appeal, as acolytes, will soon fade both for Key and the real politic in the electorates as , very soon, the repeated blanishments of empty praise pall for both the appointer and the wider audience.
In an earlier blog I pointed out that Key had been, folowing the advice of Crosby-Textor, dressing himself in clothing borrowed from greater men in preparation for the election campaign and that the imagery behind these borrowed vestments would be exploited for the duration of the campaign and the first symbolic 100 days of power.
After this Key would initially keep wearing the clothes but, like the Anderson's emporer, slowly cast them aside until someone (Maurice Williamson perhaps?) cries ot that "There are no real clothes being worn" and the demands for Key and the party he represents dress in the manner to which they are accustomed.
At present Key has surrounded himself with those, like him, who wear the election campaign image. Their tenure and security will remain until the demand from the Party's traditional constituency to return to their philosophic basics reveals his fundamental insincerity and philosophic shallowness.
Cracks in te artifical gloss on this cabinet are already apparent for those, unlike the Herald reporters, look in depth at the blogs and research sources.
Here, for instance is Paula Bennett, Minister for Social Welfare, on the National Party during her student days:

"Newly elected National Party MP of Waitakere has been found out about her past days as a National Party bagger. Using her pseudonym Paula Poo she lambasted the National Party for cutting Education and increasing student fees , these comments made when Paula was President of the Massey University Student Association;

"Fees suck and fee increases just piss me off. Damn the Nat's who bring cuts to our education system, make us pay for them out of student loans that will take many people decades to pay off. In my own case, I will probably still be paying off my student loan when my daughter gets to university age; her future looks promising!"
When urging her fellow university students to make their vote count she said ... "don't vote for f**k wits."
Reconciling these views of her favoured political party with her present reality will take a lot of doing ... unless, of course, she is locked into the groove of praising new clothes.

Another crack in Key's reality comes from Pansy Wong who informed the Principal of Howick College, after he had made a speech to the school prize giving ceremony calling for the policy to be abandoned, that the much trumpeted testing against "national" standards had been swept from the table even before the lunchtime bell had been rung despite her local colleague and cabinet minister (outside the room) Maurice Williamson telling the Eastern Courier that the policy still stood.

There has been a glimmer of analysis of the wisdom of Key's appointments appearing in the media, especially over the relationship with Rodney "Rheinfeld" Hide and his role as "Minister" of Local Government for it is in this area that the real agenda that lies beneath the "emporer's"new clothes will be revealed.

Once "Rheinfeld" Hide begins to cry "Master! Master! Help me!" to Nosferatu Douglas and John Key begins the return to the National Party's roots the electorate will see the dismantling of the image... watch out for slash & burn attacks on Kiwisaver, on welfare, the Cullen Fund and other areas of social expenditure with the excuse of " dire economic times" and the "international credit crisis" have forced the Government to back down on so many of the implied policies offered during the election campaign ... we will see how apposite Paula Bennett's earlier advice to the readers of her blog were.

National Party PPP tolling scheme to be launched by Maurice Williamson!

This little story and illustration from The Standard will lighten the hearts of Brian Kelly and his supporters in Pakuranga!!

The National Party has today been forced to clarify its policy for more public-private partnerships in transport after an embarrassing leaked photograph found its way onto several online internet ‘blogs’.

In response to the photo (below), John Key has scheduled a press conference where he is expected to formally announce a policy to lease public bus stops to private commuters at the rate of $2 an hour.

The clarification comes after transport spokesperson Maurice Williamson today stated the bus stops would be sold off completely, then backtracked and claimed they would be leased to private commuters at $5 an hour.

Mr Key has distanced himself from Mr Williamson’s comments, saying his transport spokesperson “jumped the gun” and has not been briefed on the party’s transport policy.

Refreshing Honesty

This weekend's Agenda programme allowed Maurice Williamson the opportunity to display refreshing tory honesty about the effects of the much vaunted National Party tax cuts policy on the worker's wallet.
While John Key promises everyone a $50.00+ a week tax cut Maurice explained why it was needed- "to pay the tolls that would be levied on N.Z. roads when, under National, they would be semi-privatised under the PPP schemes that underpin the National Party policy documents."
What the N.Z. taxpayer now sees is that "there ain't no free lunch under a tax cut regime" for under such a regime the need to pay tolls (private enterprise taxation) for the use of public facilities becomes obvious as under the PPP schemes the private enterprise"partner" is allowed to tax the public (and claim against the taxpayer for any shortfalls ) to pay for the costs of the roads, the schools, the hospitals and other infrastructure a National Party Government, in partnership with Private enterprise, chooses to build.
It is interesting to note that where-ever such PPP infrastructure building schemes have been in operation (Australia, UK) the taxpayer is forced to bail the Business sector out - effectively paying twice or more over for the facility.
One must thank Maurice for his refreshing honesty when he said that he knew that no one would object to paying $50.00 a week in tolls as part of one's normal household expenses. At least we now know the reasoning behind the tax cut policy - to allow the taxpayer the ability to pay big business for their largesse in donating to the National Party coffers.
Mind you, it is good to see John Key swinging again in typical flip - flop manner over Maurice's out burst of political honesty. It just goes to show that the pretender has an ill fitting set of crosby-textor borrowed clothing. It is about time the un-blinkered observers started shouting that he has no clothes. But that might be all too honest.