John Key and Bill English are telling Kiwis that they have to get by without ‘nice to haves’ as we deal with the mess they are making of the economy. So are they walking the talk themselves? Seems not…
After upgrading the BMW fleet, beefing up their personal security, and boosting their own pay packets with a new tax-free accommodation allowance, we now learn that Key has just spent $215,000 repainting Premier House, the official Prime Ministerial residence.
That’s a heck of a lot of money and one can only assume it must be a pretty gold-plated paint job. It’s more than some people can afford to spend buying their entire house.
Answers to written Parliamentary questions have revealed that National has just spent $187,996.93 repainting the outside of the Prime Ministerial residence and another $30,023.83 painting the fence and sprucing up the garden.
I simply don’t buy John Key’s argument that it wasn’t his decision, he’s the responsible minister, the buck stops with him, as it did with the BMWs and the security budget blow-out. It’s about time Key manned-up and starting taking a bit of responsibility.
What a petty pathetic little rant Chris. This property is a state asset that us used to entertain dignitaries and we need to maintain it. Would you have us host the PM & guests in a hovel?
You and other Labour MP’s are setting yourselves up to be ridiculed if you ever get back to the Govt benches and do anything but sell off all cars, houses and give up all travel. I guess it is easy to criticize knowing that you won’t have to deliver on comments or promises.
Please focus on lifting your game – we need a better opposition than this.
Thats pretty much a years work of wages for many people to paint a fence and do the garden.
How big is premier house???? How can it cost that much to paint it in and out??? How many bedrooms and what is the square meterage?
Any CEO who says what money is being spent on that is out of his area is not his concern would be sacked. Why is the PM making this excuse, im sure if he saw his house being painted etc and he learnt it cost that much he would hit the roof and sack the person who signed off on it.
Chris – I really think you are being deliberately Dim. Are you the new Hodgson? Lets look at the facts.
1.BMWs – basically they were upgraded as part of a deal negotiated under a Labour Government.
2. Painting the PMs House – do you suggest that this building should not be painted every ten Years. A modest House such I have here in Wellington cost about $20,000 to repaint. The PM Residence would need scaffold, anda fair amount of work to paint to the high standard that would be demanded.
3. Security Budget Blowout – be careful here as Clark had massive blowouts of the same budget under her regime as proven by Whaleoil.
In reality Labour are being petty and pathetic with this witch hunt on expenses. As a voter we want to know what Labour would do about the massive deficits? Where is Labour’s Business PLan for NZ? Or are you incapable of focusing of the issues that are important to NZ because Labour Have no plan. If this is the best you have then Labour will deserve the massive defeat that they are currently heading for. GO AND GET A LIFE Chris.
good luck getting the spoilt brat to take responsibility, considering that the reason he has the job he does is because he was happy to do the job of doing nothing but be part of the softening up process going on that will allow the last great asset grab to proceed unhindered by little inconveniences, like “duty of care”, and “responsibility to the electorate”. brash was too open about the schedule, and would have given too much warning, despite the television and newspapers doing their level best to cover for him/them.
taking “responsibilty” was always someone elses job. no doubt, the next in line for what will have become a “poisoned chalice” by then will either be phil goff, or whoever from national is thick/greedy enough to replace the dress up model in the pm’s office. (though that office will be more spacious once the closet is removed)
a word of wisdom…sensible, mature discussion doesn’t start with name calling, followed by bitchy rhetoric, capped with more name calling..
one needs to read the up to date, corroberated, and factual accounts of every assertion one makes if ones goal is to be a contributing part of any debate, rather than an annoying distraction.
@mont….pick up your game , you’ve become rather too predictable with the obviously outdated, and utterly inaccurate lines of spin.. it was slightly amusing at times.
@ Monty 1:24
“…Labour are being petty and pathetic.”
Presume you held the same views when the expense chits were opened back to 2002 under the last administration. Journalists did your dirty work for you. What a shame the expenses weren’t kept back to Muldoon’s era. Can imagine the journos would have been so sick of the minutiae that they would have ignored them and just got headlines and column inches on the excesses. Sadly they appear to have got bored with the issue and have moved on – (or their paymasters have told them to leave well alone.) So the only outlet now comes via blogs through OIA requests and releases
When was it last painted? Was the job tendered?
Monty, National and the PM promised to behave and conduct themselves to a higher standard than Labour, all Whale “proved” was they are as bad. I saw his figures too, the last total amount is much higher than previously even without the blow out. In any event the PM was quite clear that he cannot say no to the security around him, that was found to be untrue. I have no doubt Clark received death threats because otherwise rational men I know used to use the most awful rhetoric describing her, so anyone less rational one could only guess at what they might have written to her.
@Monty, if your modest house in wellington would be about $20,000 you need to get a new quote, or more than 1 quote.
If it was a Labour PM having $190,000 spent on painting the PM’s residence would you be happy?
Thats a hell of alot of labour, paint and gear.
The last election had very little to do with financial policies or managing the economy. Remember the Nats agreed that the books were in good order.
Joe Public appeared to have become tired of an administration that was “guilty” of social engineering. An example is the bazaar matter of Section 59. (Family Fist and their followers have not had a reversal of Section 59 – because the majority of parliament, most notably Key, supported the amendment in the first place – yet the responsibility for its enactment was sheeted home to Labour. )
Remember the orchestrated “block of cheese” chant from the Nats over the Cullen tax cut and then Jo Blo swallowed the promises of north of $50.00 from Joky Hen. What price Jo Blo’s comments about his pay packet now. Where are the press?
@tracy.. good point on the rhetoric issue. it got quite scary at one stage with some of the frothing at the mouth i was hearing. from grown men no less.
speaking with my tradesmans hat on, i would guess that the premier house job would have had to have been a restoration job for it to be that costly. there would have been extensive structural and cladding repairs going on to justify that price. just a straight outside paint job should only have cost approx$30-40,000. interior and exterior complete would be around $60-70,000. more only if the types of wallpaper etc are difficult/expensive to source.
i would allow a margin of error on that estimate of around 10-20%….. but even at that price it’s a good earner for whoever got it.
@waterboy.. the average price for a paint job in auckland for a 3 bedroom house is$7-9,000. you can get it for less now, but that’s only because the economy has tanked up here, and no-one has any money, or are too insecure to spend it.
Chris your party spent almost fifty mill on upgrading government house, remember http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/454954
Perhaps the painting team had to have Security clearance. It may have been painted by the Security Team themselves and just imagine the thousands needed to train them to move from vigilant hard men to artistic painters. With or without ear-pieces or dark glasses.
It will be important for Key to justify this spending and others as he has had to justify little so far. He has been regarded as untouchable by the MSM and a few good questions even if answered convincingly will cause a shift.
The question is the answer.
@ianmac…have you never seen “the katate kid”? they can take it out of their normal training budgets. like the aiforce example. two for the price of one.. but wait.. there’s more.
“Chris your party spent almost fifty mill on upgrading government house, remember http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/454954 ”
A Team=1, Chris=0.
@A team
“Chris your party spent almost fifty mill on upgrading government house, remember
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/454954”
So why did it need doing again? And costing SO much?
I hope, Labour, that these episodes pointing out the largess of John Key — NZ’s accepted wealthy celebrity politician — are just a case of filling in time until you crank up the election campaign and launch a full suite of new policy initiatives.
For many in NZ, John Key is now a popular wealthy kiwi celebrity who also happens to be the PM; when they see he enjoys riding in helicopters and holidaying in Hawaii they compare him to other celebrities, not other MPs, leaving you guys looking like having a case of tall-poppy syndrome.
@Sica, Chris is complaining about Premier House being painted, Labour funded a $50mill upgrade of Govt House – where the Gov General lives.
And both projects were worth doing, Chris. Prem House is an old wooden building and needs regular maintenance including painting. It hasnt been painted since Shipley moved back into it.
Helen Clark respected heritage buildings more than anyone and I expect this project would have happened under watch too – because it was necessary in terms of maintaining the building and our collective history.
Get a real issue Chris.
@ fool monty 1.24pm
monty aka monty burns is viewed as an antagonist to many, if not all, of the inhabitants of Springfield. He is an elderly, skinny man who is shown as being evil, cruel, bitter, cynical, heartless and greedy.
lolz
Chris. I’ve found an even more scandalous extravagance that National are up to!
Each Minister’s office gets its own copy of the Dom-Post each morning.
I’m sure Trevor will confirm that, in the days of the last Labour Government, one paper was allocated to each four offices in order to save money.
And no it was not because, as cynics have suggested to me, that only one in four of the Labour Cabinet could read.
I just had to spend $95k painting a building I own,pissed me off big time but I guess when things need doing they just need doing.
Key must have bugger all to do if he just walks outside and says must get the old girl painted,and rings up a mate to come round and fix it??.
ON another issue, im sure those painters could have painted alot of rooms that have been re-gibbed and stopped in CHC after the quake for 200K.
I really despair at the relevance of the Labour Party when they need to stoop to such issues just to get some headlines
Here is a little history. The original building, constructed in the early days of the New Zealand colony in 1843 is located at the southern end of the current building, and was greatly expanded two decades later. The house was bought for use by the country’s Premier in 1865 and was converted to a more fitting building for a national leader in 1872. The newly extended structure included, among other things, New Zealand’s first lift and the grounds featured what is thought to have been the country’s first tennis court.
In the early twentieth century, the house was named “Awarua” by the family of Prime Minister Joseph Ward, and became one of the capital’s main social places, hosting many formal and informal parties. Further extensions were made to the building in 1926.
In 1935 Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage decided that the building was surplus to requirements, and for many years it was put to numerous uses, including as a children’s dental clinic. After years of decline, Dr. Michael Bassett, Minister of Internal Affairs initiated moves for the restoration of the building to its early grandeur, and since restoration was completed it has again been the Prime Minister’s official residence when in the capital.
So Chris if you are not working on some other spiteful exclusive please tell us
How much it cost to repaint in 2000 (under Labour)
If such as asset should not be maintained? (Given painting is normally regular and planned maintenance)
Tell us how much it should have cost (given that this job was tendered out)
What part of the scope of works should not have been done.
Would Labour have deferred the painting?
Trev – I suggest that you pull Chris aside and give him a damn good talking to about not being such a silly person and how he should try not to embarrass the Labour Party (Do the same to Hodgson while you are at it)
.
@Monty, Labour have lost the policy debate and they know it. So now they are just raising these issues that really don’t matter that they can spin (oh no we spent 0.4% of what Labour spent on different Heritage building) I say keep it coming, New Zealanders don’t like negative politicking as we saw in 2008.
Chris H, were my questions above too hard?
“When was it last painted? Was the job tendered? “
Interesting comment above about JK being a celebrity who happens to be PM. I wonder, if this is his Achilles heel amongst certain voters, who don’t dislike him for his status, and his apparent fawning over other celebs but dont see that as relevant tot he skill set of a PM?
I do chuckle at the “lack of policy” taunts.You may be right but you voted the current government on a lack of policy and are happy with their lack of implementation of the policies they said they had.
Increasing punishments for criminal behaviour neither stimulates the economy nor creates jobs, unless your platform for job creation revolves around building more prisons.
The last time Premier House was painted was back in 2000 – and back then the Labour government spent over $200k doing the place up.
John Key should be praised for keeping the costs down despite ten years of inflation since the last paint job.
And if Labour spent less time nitpicking, mudslinging and backstabbing, and a little more time on enunciating well thought out policies then you wouldn’t be staring down the barrel of political oblivion post-2011′s election.
Wake up Chris. It’s time to shelve Blue State Digital’s ‘Target Key’ strategy, and get back in touch with the working people you once stood strong for.
Have to chuckle at all the advice from national/ACT supporters to get in touch with “working people”, who happen to be the people being screwed over under this government… all for the good of everyone of course. They just have to be patient and work harder to get their reward.
Oh, I find it very hard to believe that ANY PM is intricately involved in the costing of the painting contract. I mean if they can’t find time to visit food banks and the like how could they find time to work out if a paint job has been costed correctly? Remember he didnt know about the BMW’s, why would he know about this?
I assume an appropriate person out this job to tender.
Tracey – Sorry it has taken a while to get back to you. I don’t know whether the job was tendered, that’s something Key will have to answer. He claims the outside was last painted in 1990. The inside was last refurbished in 1999 when Jenny Shipley was PM (she held an ‘Open Day’ to show the place off after the works had been completed).
Thanks Chris, understand you are busy. Perhaps someone could ask if it was tendered, and with removal of company names, the public could view the tenders?
Monty – Missed your questions earlier, given you’ve clearly spent a lot of time researching the history of the building I’m surprised you’ve been suckered in by Farrar’s lie that it was last done up under Clark/Labour. It was in fact Shipley who last redecorated, at a cost of less than the current upgrade, and she then held an Open Day to show the place off (in March 1999).
Who cares? It’s $200k! When are we finally going to hear Labour’s thus far secret plans for lifting incomes; growing the economy; AND reducing debt?
Come on chippy – is this cr*p really what you worked so hard to get into parliament for? Cos to me, it’s all irrelevant BS, while your team leave the way more important questions unanswered. Christ, you wonder why the polling is this bad – stop treating the electorate like easily outages simpletons and give them something to vote FOR, rather than vote against.