The latest unemployment figures have obviously rattled John Key and his sidekick the Minister for Unemployment Paula Bennett.
They have been in a bidding war for the lamest excuse to explain away their lack of a plan to get New Zealanders back to work.
Which excuse is your personal favourite from John Key?
- People should relax
- Don’t give up hope
- The HLFS is notoriously volatile
- It’s just a survey
- The information is old
- Unemployment is a lagging not a leading indicator
Or the doozie of them all from Paula Bennett- a slow recovery fits the government’s focus on the economy.
All these comments have been made in the last 24 hours.
What has happened to John Key’s claim that we would come out of the recession aggressively! In their third year in charge of the economy we are going backwards. It’s government by slogans, excuses and gimmicks.
And here are a few Keyisms:
A brighter future
Turbo charging the economy
Being ambitious for New Zealand
Catching up with Australia
A step change for NZ
To add to his title the Svengali of Spin, John Key can now add King of the Catwalk.
That’s not an excuse – it’s the truth and fits with John Keys promise to lower wages.
All the ones that John Key put forward are the spin to hide the truth that they just have NFI WTF they’re doing (except enriching rich people).
At least life is cheap – according to Murray McCully a New Zealander’s life is worth less than one twelfth of the cost of a charter flight out of Egypt.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10704077
I’ve been trying to work JK out for ages, and now, thanks to a comment from The Standard (the video you linked to comes from there), I know JK is NZ’s answer to David Brent—that video just fits so perfectly.
Appropriate use of language Annette, e.g. “lamest” to make an impact. Like it or not you have to start at where people are at. A Stuff video poll from yesterday shows how low media scrutiny has sunk, “who is hot John or Phil”-good grief.
There is going to be a s***storm of beneficary bashing when the Rebstock group reports soon, which will be so incongruous during a time of recession when there is a genuine need for state assistance to thousands of obvious non bludgers. What mixed message is that going to send to people that want work but can’t find it or have had training opportunities chopped?
Excuses is all the Natz are offering.
NACT must actually be happy about this; as surely lower wages and higher unemployment equals a lift in relative productivity!
So we should really be thanking National for the jobless recovery they’re nurturing!
Which excuse is your personal favourite from John Key?
“Don’t give up hope”.
I for one continue to hope that the National party will be on the opposition benches following this year’s election. The government has produced no solutions for New Zealand, and have just made things worst. This fact keeps getting clearer with time.
Got to say, that catwalk image is pretty disturbing.
Well now the election being at the latest possible time is now obvious, they are hoping… praying that there will be some green shoots by then to offer the voters some solace.
Who would have thought 2 years ago that English and Key havent the faintest idea how to run a successful economy.
Tax cuts and cutting government expenditure hasnt worked and they claimed Labour spent too much but they have spent even more and borrowed more and we are into a ‘new’ recession.
On the breakfast show this morning, when I saw bennet was on next, I took the chance to do my morning ablutions.
When done, I asked my nine year old what bennet had said she’d do to get people back into work – “Nothing, dad. She said nothing”
Sounds about right
“It’s a survey” is my favourite.
I advice any unemployed, struggling to feed their kids this weekend, to tell their kids they’re not really hungry, it’s just a survey.
“Mum and Dad investors”
Thats the one bit of rubbish/spin coming out that I am most sick of – I predict the next excuse will be that the”Mum and Dad investors” are not investing enough and thats why we are having a slow recovery.
Well now the election being at the latest possible time is now obvious, they are hoping… praying that there will be some green shoots by then to offer the voters some solace.
Whereas if they’d gone early, of course, they’d be slipping the election in before things go so bad they’d be turned out on their ears…
Al1ens: when I saw bennet was on next, I took the chance to do my morning ablutions.
She has the same effect on me.
Has Paula Bennett stopped “stepping up” and what is becoming for the people that she said she would “back everytime”? Seems it might take more than a slogan or two to be an effective Minister of Social Development.
National has a plan:
2025 Taskforce
Welfare Working Group
Savings Working Group
They are just too chicken to enact it… and more’s the pity…
So the reports indictae what National’s secret manifesto really was …
No, the reports indicate the reports… The ones the National Party were given, that they’d asked groups they formed after the election to give them…
They aren’t acting on them because they fear losing the next election more than they desire to have the courage of their convictions, argue their case and adhere to their principles and enact the details…
What their manifesto would have been, if they did not have to convince voters to agree then.
They do have a plan and it’s the same one they used last year.
At this time of year unemployment is up and when students resume study it goes down again, National will once again say this is a sign of a recovery in jobs has begun.
Yeah, I get it. They say they will not put up gst… Until their task force says they should. Then they won’t get done for breaking election promises.
I wonder what other idealogical nonsense can be snuck in through the back door under the guise of ‘working party reports’?
@SPC, I’m not sure… They have a lot of what I saw today called NINOs in the party… Guys like Simon Power, Nick Smith, etc…
That becasue those reports would send NZ into a new Gilded Age circa 1920s; and fortunatetly our democracy is robust engough to reject that path.
@True Wheel, man that video was:
a, probably rigged
b, disturbing
and
c, kinda like waving candy in front of an upset child (nation) to distract it!
Oh boy, I’m glad it’s election year!
@richie, lawful economic liberalisation has worked so well, so many times, I actually find it hard to believe people still refuse to accept reality…
The wealth of the average American adjusted for inflation increased 700% between 1900 – 2000, that despite:
- World War 1
- World War 2
- The Korean War
- The Vietnam War
- The Cold War
- The first Iraq War
- The Depression
- 7 major recessions
- An increase in population from 100,000,000 to 300,000,000
etc
and of course (horror) the Gilded Age, yet some genii out there still want us to follow the Polish Shipyard formula – it’s unbelievable…
Now c’mon, everyone be fair. The PM has suggested we need to remain positive because the Rugby World Cup is really going to stimulate the economy and give it a “boost”. That means he acknowledges the former PM’s amazing foresight in getting behind this big event to win it for NZ. And dont forget the earthquake he cleverly engineered which is also seeing a sharp rise in job vacancies in Christchurch in engineering and trades. This will be reflected in the next employment figures but his party wont point out that the majority of the upturn in job vacancies are in Christchurch.
Jeremy M
Much of US economy during that time is based on supporting, participating in, instigating and supplying munitions for wars around the world and squandering resources such as oil.
The US taxpayer foots the bill at home while many million abroad have paid with their lives and communities and loose control of their economies and resources. You call that progress!
Go back into the century before and the pattern is not very different and then of course shift back to the era of slavery and you will find the roots of much US thinking.
Most of the wealth you talk about is held by a small percentage at the top of the pile. Your masters.
For some they are the moral leaders but such morals cost the majority, from who the wealth is gained.
In NZ multinationals pay cheap off shore labour to do the work that was done by NZders. The profits are not shared here and taxation has just been minimised for them. We are treated as consumers for their exploitation.
Cheap imports replace NZ based manufacture and no restriction is placed on this destruction to our economy. Ask yourself why.
Remember Key is a corporate banker who was in bed with Greenspan.
His allegiance is not to creating jobs in NZ.
A plethora of side issues take up time while nothing is done to assist the NZ worker and particularly the younger generation.
While time rolls on moves to take more wealth from the average NZder continue. The bottom section of our economic demographic is growing in size while accumulation of assets slides up the ladder.
Direct intervention is the answer not shallow promises and lies.