Then they reveal that they did know about it, defend it saying it’s no big deal, and accuse those answering questions of muck-raking or focusing on the small stuff. But if you keep asking questions, it usually turns out that they knew exactly what was going on and in fact they were up to their eyeballs in it.

Answers that have just come back to written parliamentary questions reveal that not only did Key know about the painting of Premier House, he made them change the proposed colour scheme.

A pattern is also emerging that shows how sloppy this government are when it comes to the way they spend money on themselves. Key stated in his most recent answers that the decision to re-carpet Premier House was made in late-2009. If that’s the case, Key should have included it in Estimates information provided to the Select Committee following the Budget. He didn’t.

At best that’s sloppy management on Key’s part (he signs off the answers to the Select Committee), at worst it suggests they’re deliberately trying to fudge the amount they spend on themselves. Either way it’s pretty clear that Key’s “aggressive” line-by-line review of government spending doesn’t apply to his own spending. There’s a word for that.

It was a similar situation with the BMWs. First Key claimed he hadn’t been told, then it turned out his Chief of Staff was fully briefed and two of his Ministers had signed the deal off. A bit odd that Key would take an active interest in something as small as a new paint job for Premier House but not know about a multi-million dollar car purchase. And let’s not forget that Bill English only paid back the housing allowance because he got found out.

So here are a few of the questions that remain unanswered:

• Did John Key know about the $50,000 donation when his Chief of Staff met with the VIP transport officials?
• Does John Key think it was wise to speak at a fundraiser organised by BMW dealer Team McMillan while his officials were in the process of signing-off the BMW fleet replacement, particularly given Mr McMillan has publicly stated he wants to be involved in selling the old ones?
• What was the actual date of the Team McMillan fundraiser?
• Who else attended the Team McMillan fundraiser? Was anybody from BMW NZ, who are supplying the new cars, in attendance?
• Who will be responsible for disposing of the old BMWs? Will it be BMW NZ, or will the Department be responsible?
• Did John Key discuss the VIP fleet at the fundraiser with anyone, if so, who?
• Have any of the original BMW fleet been sold yet, if so, who to?
• Why does John Key keep claiming the deal for the new BMWs was Labour’s, when his own officials admit there was no obligation to take up the renewal option and they could have stuck with the old ones without any penalty?
• What did his officials discuss with his Chief of Staff at the 28 July 2010 meeting? Why didn’t his Chief of Staff brief him on it?
• Why does John Key keep claiming his government didn’t know about it when both Nathan Guy and Bill English signed it off, his Chief of Staff clearly knew about it, and he himself signed at least 4 documents that referred to it?

I think these are all legitimate questions and John Key should man-up and provide a few answers. Unfortunately he has a history of being slippery with the facts until he is caught. Do you remember how the story of his Tranz Rail shares changed back in 2008? He didn’t admit to the extent of the holding until after he knew TVNZ knew how many he really had. In fact, he lied first and told the truth only after the truth was told for him.

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.

Stuff reported last week that Key has used the helicopter four times in the past 3 weeks alone, including the now infamous trip from the V8 supercars to the golf club. So what were the other three trips? Looking on Key’s Facebook page, the possibilities are endless. Did he use Airforce helicopters to visit the Timaru skateboard park? Perhaps he used them to make a ‘cameo appearance’ at the NZ Shearing Champs in Te Kuiti?

The PM and other Ministers should be able to use the airforce where it is necessary to carry out their official duties. But there is a pretty clear distinction between attending to official matters of state and using them to jet between photo-ops that are clearly little more than campaigning.

Every quarter Parliament and Ministerial Services issue a breakdown of spending on air travel by MPs and Ministers, but those figures don’t include the use of military aircraft. That’s an anomaly that needs to be fixed. As a general rule, I believe that use of military planes and helicopters by VIPs should be disclosed and the public should be able to judge whether the matters that they were attending to justified their use.

Meantime John Key and his Cabinet should start practicing what they preach and stop splashing taxpayer cash on photo-ops for the PM. At the last election John Key chartered a plane so that he could flit from one photo-op to the next. He should stick to that approach rather than suck military resources into his campaign machinery.

First Key claims nobody in the government knew about the BMW fleet upgrade. Then he admitted English and Nathan Guy signed it off. Then we discovered his Chief of Staff was in the loop. Then we found out Key himself signed-off on it but never read the reports he was signing.

Now we learn that ‘extras’ were ordered like heated seats and mobile offices, despite Key telling Parliament that no such ‘nice to haves’ were in the deal. Seriously, does anyone in government know what is going on? We’re talking about millions of taxpayer dollars here, and it’s not like there hasn’t been considerable public interest.

I asked a few questions of the government about their recent decision to upgrade the fleet of ministerial BMWs. The answers were quite interesting. Apparently one of the BMWs to be based in the lower South Island will have heated seats. This is justified on the basis that it will be used for ‘long distance’ and ‘long duration’ movements. Could that be the trips Mr English takes to his pretend home in Dipton by any chance?

Interesting to note that only one of the BMWs has this added feature. Could it be that Mr English asked for it specifically? I know he suffers from a bad back, but surely in this era where the ‘nice to haves’ are out the door, he could chip in and cover his own expenses? Did he ask for this, or did the pixies at the bottom of the garden that he’s so fond of decide that he should just have it?

The new cars will have mobile office facilities and internet access too. One can just imagine Mr English sitting there in the back seat reading the latest Woman’s Weekly and checking his Facebook page. Nice to know that he’s being well looked after, what with the fresh flowers in his office (he’s one of the govt’s biggest spenders) and that nice house in Karori (not with the extra hour a week of cleaning mind you)…

Before I became an MP I worked for several different Ministers, and I can recall a few cases where staff slipped up and didn’t pass on information. In every case that I was involved with, the Minister concerned took the rap. Blaming the staff is a pretty weak way to operate. I certainly can’t imagine any of those Ministers, including Helen Clark using the excuse that they were too busy heading off on holiday for not attending to their job.

No doubt tomorrow Key will have a new set of excuses, but for now the chronology goes something like this:

• Firstly, Key claims he didn’t know anything about it;
• Then his limo driver told him about ‘a week ago’;
• Then his limo driver told him about it ‘some weeks back’;
• Now it turns out he was briefed in December, but chose not to read it.

John Key has been equally devious about the nature of the contract:

• First he said they couldn’t get out of it without paying a high penalty;
• Then he said the contract could have been cancelled without penalty;
• Then he said the contract is a good deal for taxpayers;
• Now he is saying the Solicitor General has advised that the govt can’t pull out of the deal.

He is hardly consistent either when it comes to how the deal was authorised:

• First off all, he said the decision was made by the Internal affairs Department, which did not think it had to check with Ministers;
• Then he agreed Ministers had known about the contract last year;
• Then he said his Internal Affairs Minister Nathan Guy assumed last year that he would know all about and didn’t bother telling him;
• Now he says he was informed but didn’t read the briefing paper.

This whole saga has been a shambles and suggests that Key just isn’t on top of his job. If he isn’t willing to do anything more than smile and wave for the cameras, perhaps he should hand over the detail work as Minister Responsible for Ministerial Services to somebody who doesn’t find the thought of sitting down with a thick briefing paper quite so daunting.

First that National was “locked into” upgrading the fleet after three years. The PM said this yesterday and various cheerleaders have carried it on today. It is simply not true. Listen to the interview on Checkpoint (starts at 17.50) where a DIA spokesperson confirms that the contract had an option to renew and there was no financial penalty for not doing so.

Second, the spin about this being an “Internal Affairs” matter. That is an important choice of words from Nats to distance John Key from what is becoming a major issue for them. The part of Internal Affairs that deals with the VIP cars is Ministerial Services. The Minister responsible for Ministerial Services is John Key. This is his patch.

I agree with Trevor that it is an absurd notion that no-one in the Beehive knew that this was going on. When I worked in the PMs office we had very regular contact with Ministerial Services on all manner of things, and a major purchase like this would have been one of those things. I know that the level of coordination in the Prime Minister’s office these days is pretty sloppy, so I guess its possible they are simply not thinking about these kinds of issues, but still find it incredible if it did slip through.

“We will be looking at wage moderation across the state sector at all angles…Clearly the more pressures there are on wages the more difficult it will be for departmental managers to keep current staffing levels…restraint is going to be necessary right across the public sector.”

So is John Key living up to his own standards, or is this just a rule for everyone else? Consider these facts:

• As of June 2009 the number of staff working in the Beehive earning over $100,000 a year had doubled since the same time in 2008 when Labour was in government
• 16 ministerial staff received a pay rise in 2009, yet Key is refusing to release any information about them

Why does John Key think that those working in ministerial offices should be subject to different standards to those working in the rest of the public sector? Or does he just believe that there should be one rule for himself and another for everyone else?

Note: I haven’t asked Key to provide any information that would identify individual staff. I’ve simply asked what % increase the staff got and what salary bands they were in. Perhaps Key just thinks the answer is too embarrassing?