'Please stay and run our country,' was the plea from Australian businesses to New Zealand Prime Minister John Key yesterday as he addressed a business lunch in Sydney.
Corporate opposition to the economic policies of Australian Labor PM Julia Gillard and her Treasurer Wayne Swan is growing across the ditch. Opposition leader Tony Abbott looks increasingly likely to come to power in 2013 on the back of opposition to the Gillard government's recently introduced carbon tax, not to mention the disarray Labor has found itself in as new rumours of leadership stoushes seem to arise every week.
“Prime Minister, I’m not sure what you’re doing next week, but the question is: Australian business would like you to run the country,” lunch attendee Rod McGeoch told Key in Sydney, according to the Australian Financial Review (AFR).
McGeoch, based in Australia, is the chairman of New Zealand's SkyCity Entertainment Group , which is currently in talks with the government to build, and pay for, a NZ$350 million convention centre in Auckland in exchange for more pokie machines and an extension of its casino licence.
The AFR said Key was in Australia "to take local manufacturing back home to lower-cost New Zealand."
Means-testing the pension?
The AFR went all wobbly kneed over Key's visit, giving him front-page prominence and headlining its editorial, Once again NZ shows us how.
"In the 1980s it was New Zealand’s breakneck economic reform program that impressed Australians. Now it is the clear-sighted style of leadership practised by NZ Prime Minister John Key’s National-led minority government that we could benefit from," the AFR said.
"Mr Key is introducing the next generation of reforms. His approach is methodical, not ideological, and he has been extremely careful not to break promises," it said.
The AFR did appear to know more about Key's policies than the Press Gallery in Wellington did, when it wrote, "Mr Key’s journey from humble beginnings to NZ’s wealthiest MP has given him a licence to undertake social welfare reforms such as drug testing for welfare benefits and means testing of the age pension."
The Prime Minister's office reassured interest.co.nz they "think AFR got this wrong," with respect to the means-testing pension comment.
And just to highlight the dislike of the Gillard government in Australia (and possibly of the shadow Cabinet as well), the AFR concluded its editorial by saying:
"As reassuringly dependable, orthodox yet “decisive” – for example when choosing in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake to pay a $400 a week subsidy to the city’s workers, against official advice – Mr Key’s practical but focused leadership style is benefiting NZ. It would be welcome on this side of the Tasman given the political mess festering in Canberra."
34 Comments
Talk about hypocrisy of the highest order.
If JK had made such a momentiously stupid broken promise as "There will be no Carbon Tax under a government I lead" he would rightly be lampooned, but you think Gillard has been gutsy.
In case you haven't been paying attention, Gillards treasurer aka Swanny has run the four largest deficits in Australian history, and all during a supposed 'booming' economy. What will happen were the tide to go out?
maybe it is not really a boom economy at all. maybe resources are actually destroying many parts of the Oz economy. So maybe the tide has gone out already. The large deficits are there to keep an economy transacting- the combination of pwerful banking interests, powerful mining interests and out of control local government seem particuarly toxic.
Mining has to be taxed. It is a one off hit. The mine owners in London do not care about Australia. They never have, it is built into their DNA.
One thing we have nearly always been able to so about Australians is that they have guts.
Let's see- The SkyCity convention centre "No taxpayer money" deal is currently looking like
"Budget documents reveal that if the plan goes ahead, taxpayers will contribute up to $2.1 million to ensure its design and facilities meet Government expectations."
So I'm not surprised the SkyCity would also like Key to be in charge of Australia.
As the aboriginal folk would say - dreamtime. To be prime minister of australia he would need to become an australian citizen and renounce his new zealand citizenship. As an australian citizen the best he would get is the OA honour ("Order of Australia") and would never get his knighthood.
Well I just did my online tax return and am dismayed that the Aussie govt is taking $3000 *more* dollars in tax for healthcare (which I never use) just to use to buy the bogan vote ($5000 per kid, new Mcmansion buyers subsidy etc etc).
John could hardly do any worse.
"Mr Key is introducing the next generation of reforms. His approach is methodical, not ideological, and he has been extremely careful not to break promises," it said.
Yeah, and Kate and the rest of the Left reckon he's a huge A-hole because of it. I guess that means they wish he had an approach that was ad hoc, ideological and dishonest - that must be what they prefer and are used to on the Left.
....and “Sounds about right” – stop the government allowing megalomaniac farming practices, which have negative consequences for the nation/ environment and often cannot even be controlled.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7241937/Salmon-dying-at-controversial-Marlborough-farm
This must be a Labour forum having read the posts above. I take my hat off to Key - and contrary to the above think National are doing it mostly right. Just yesterday I had meeting with two Australian businesses relocating to NZ. Up to 40 jobs on offer. They are disbanding there Aussie operation citing high operating costs, taxation, and labour laws. Things that English and JK have both touted in recent years, and been instrumental in changing. Thank goodness The left aren't in charge eh?. Keep up the good work guys
The businesses are arbitaging the exchange rate and resulting wage rate differential.
Actually New Zealand is a high cost low wge economy, a very strange place to be. It sort of functions because we seem to be able to get by on low levels of transactions, and a large informal economy.
Making NZ workers poorer willnot help increase the number of official transactions in the economy ( the stuff that GDP measures). Our cost structure is now extremely high and barriers to market entry also very high. Market manipulation through access to government, or through official inertia is completely out of hand.
We have two supermarket groups, no international food brands to speak of.
We have George Kerr getting away with some very odd behaviour with PGG
We have Sky City dealing directly with the Prime Minister
We have huge numbers of people locating to Australia. THis is a massive cost to New Zealand.
We are importing third world labour terms a conditions in farming, fishing, shop keeping and restaurants.
We have allowed a bubble to develop in house prices, our currency to be debased in the process.
It is a strange place at the moment.
"We have huge numbers of people locating to Australia. THis is a massive cost to New Zealand."
The Treasury Secretary forecast a couple of years back that another 400,000 Kiwis would cross the Tasman by 2025, and the NZ Institute forecast that we'd be overtaken in per capita GDP by Botswana and Khazakstan the same year.
We're on track to do it earlier.
'Please stay and run our country,' was the plea from Australian businesses to New Zealand Prime Minister John Key yesterday as he addressed a business lunch in Sydney.
Well I wish Mr Key would take control and put a halt to this type of nonsense and the probable cost blow-out consequences. I am still waiting for the flow on benefits of RWC other than my tax payment debits:
The Auditor-General is investigating Auckland councillor Cathy Casey's complaint that a secret report on the V8 supercars was hidden from the council by its standalone events body. Read Herald article
Lets hope the Auditor- General is mindful of the salient points raised here:
Government promises to public employees have created “zero-risk” Wonderlands protected from the market forces of risk and consequence. These islands of privilege are snapping back to join the real economy.
Every government entity that reckoned it was moated from the market economy will be snapped back to “discover” risk and consequence. Let’s lay out the dynamic:
'Please stay and run our country,'.................as you are obviously parasite freindly.
'Please stay and run our country,'..................as your voice is somehow more effeminate than our Julia's and I think you'd look cute in heels an a little off the shoulder number.
'Please stay and run our country,'..................as you haven't got a dingo's show of running your own without us.
'Please stay and run our country,'...................as we love the idea of paying peons piss all to work harder for homes they can't afford serviced by utilities that require small mortgages to maintain.
'Please stay and run our country,'....................and you can bring that yokel mate of yours Billy Bob too , he's got that deadpan humour about him, calling black white and so forth...bloody riot he is.....not keen on the Fat man, doesn't seem all that bright and we already have plenty of yes men who prolly eat less.
'Please stay and run our country,'.......................into the ground if you know what I mean..?, dirty big holes in the ground with minning loot sloshing out of the peons pockets right into our pokies.......
'Please stay and run our country,'....................as asset striping, floating off,..damaging, ...near collapsing, ...reflogging the broken model, completely rebrand repakage and presto here we are in Corporate Control H.Q......OMG it's all good..!
'Please stay and run our country,'............................as Our Banks already run yours....so uh...you know.
One3 thing to note about the Ket CV.
From the outside it appears that every private business he has been involved in has subsequently failed.
The accounting firm- his first job- ended up being gobbled up by a bigger firm, harly a success-
Elders Finance- gone bust
Banker Trust- gone Bust
Merrill Lynch- Gone Bust
nothing to do with Key in particular just interesting. I guess his survival skills will work well for him but we cannot afford for NZ to go bust can we.
I think you have to look at all of JKs behavious strictly through a lense of self ineterest. Everything he does and says are for him, there is no greater good than JK.
How will they even understand each other?
John Key: 'Fush un chups un mulk un swutshuts'.
Aussies: 'Feeesh een cheeeps een meeeelk en sweeetsheeets'.
John Key: 'Wut dud ju suy?'
Aussies: 'Wet deeed yeew sey?'
A while a go I was in a cafe and a middleaged Ocker woman asked the Malay waitress for another "norf". The poor waitress was buggered by this, as was I, until the Ocker made cutting motions, and we discovered she was actually after another "knife". But she and the other Aussies in her group all looked at each other and rolled their eyes as if to say "stupid bloody [insert racial epithet for Asian]".
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