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Written By: Guest post - Date published: 7:03 am, February 27th, 2010 - 18 comments
We received this guest post about half an hour after John Key announced his cycleway. At the time, the very sensible criticisms it raises were ignored by an enamoured media.
How prescient it looks now, on the anniversary of the Prime Minister’s Jobs Summit.
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:31 am, February 5th, 2010 - 47 comments
Nearly a year ago, John Key, shaken by the first whispers of disquiet over his government’s month-long holiday at the height of an economic crisis (whispers that would later grow into cries of ‘Do Nothing’ Key), decided to hold the Prime Minister’s Jobs Summit.
This would not be a talk-fest, it would be a ‘do-fest’ (whatever …
Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 11:19 am, November 23rd, 2009 - 27 comments
Anyone with a brain has always known Key’s cycleway is a joke. The sick thing is he’s now using it as a punchline himself:
Barack Obama’s planned White House Job Summit struck a note with our own PM when he heard about it during the Singapore Apec meeting. “Maybe he’ll do a national cycleway,” John Key …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:57 pm, November 18th, 2009 - 6 comments
As Irish has already noted, Fran O’Sullivan has savaged John Key’s record on employment and said that Paula Bennett is “too busy puffing her own achievements to pay much heed” to warnings on the dire long term-effects of high youth unemployment. What caught my eye was her quote from Key at the start. President Obama is looking for ways …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:46 am, November 14th, 2009 - 10 comments
The Greens have announced the collapse of the cornerstone of their Memorandum of Understanding with National. With Gerry Brownlee as Minister for Energy, National hasn’t only failed to make progress on energy efficiency and conservation, it is taking illogical, retrograde steps.
So why are the Greens continuing to provide greenwash for this government?
I’m thinking about Kevin Hague …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:30 am, November 11th, 2009 - 7 comments
I’m all for cycle-ways but excuse me if I don’t get all silly over John Key knocking a post in the ground in Waikato and declaring his first cycle-way under way.
The reality is the Waikato River Trail was being built anyway. In fact, it is already over half built. So this $3 million isn’t actually creating anything …
Written By: r0b - Date published: 9:30 am, October 31st, 2009 - 8 comments
This just in:
A picture of stage one of PM John Key’s personal solution to NZ’s recession – the cycleway to nowhere!
OK, just kidding. It’s one of the images from The Guardian’s photo show on “Crap cycle lanes”. View them and weep, fellow cyclists…
(If you want a political angle to haggle – how long …
Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 2:50 pm, October 15th, 2009 - 14 comments
Funny thing, I woke up this morning and thought to myself “what happened to the cycleway?” I was even going to put a “quick question” post up later today to see if anyone out there knew.
Then just a few minutes ago a media release from Tourism New Zealand turned up in my inbox to …
Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 4:44 pm, July 31st, 2009 - 75 comments
Just when we thought he couldn’t top the comic value of the cycleway…
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:35 am, July 27th, 2009 - 19 comments
[At the outset of this, let me restate, once again, I'm all for cycleways. Indeed, I wish the Key government hadn't cut millions from urban cycling in the Budget. What I object to is the overhyping of a few possible cycleways as if they constitute some kind of economic recovery plan]
Key has identified seven regional …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 6:58 pm, July 12th, 2009 - 12 comments
Tv1 has revealed that our daydreamer PM had much much bigger plans for the cycleway. Like excited schoolkids, he and good mate Mark Weldon of the NZX drew up plans for a grand cycle race to be called the Sir Edmund Hillary tour that would go the length of New Zealand along the cycleway.
They slapped …
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:47 am, July 5th, 2009 - 12 comments
As CycleWatch hits 100 days, John Key’s been caught with his pants down. As No Right Turn explains a few days ago:
[There has been no cost-benefit analysis] and now it seems to have abandoned its own timetable for beginning the project. Either that, or the Prime Minister is going to pull the initial selection of …
Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:43 am, June 23rd, 2009 - 17 comments
So 1,001,880 Australians visited New Zealand in the year to May, up 3.7% over the last May year despite the recession Yay? Well don’t pop the bubbly just yet.
The total number of visitors fell 2.6% from 2,482,881 to 2,418,647. The decrease from other countries wiped out the gain from Australia. And here’s the important thing …
Written By: lprent - Date published: 2:30 pm, June 12th, 2009 - 7 comments
No Right Turn has been investigating John Key’s baby:
Back in February, Prime Minister John Key came up with a bold and radical plan to end the recession and create jobs: a cycleway the length of New Zealand. As it became apparent that the plan was not a joke, and was in fact being taken …
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:09 am, May 19th, 2009 - 32 comments
Time: 54 days
Jobs created: 0
Built (km): 0 out of 1500
Cost thus far: $50m (Budget 2009)
Govt estimated cost (English): “Not $50m this year, next year, or the year after”
Country status: In recession
Eddie wonders aloud: “Who’s more deluded, John Key for thinking his cycleway spin would make people forget about unemployment, or Russel Norman and the Greens …
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 3:31 pm, May 14th, 2009 - 22 comments
John Key has overruled Bill English and got the money for his beloved cycleway (now a group of “Great Rides”), $50 million spread over three years.
I won’t waste too much time on the substance.The argument’s the same as it always was. Cycle tracks are neat but spending $50 million on them over three years isn’t …
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:33 pm, May 7th, 2009 - 4 comments
Time: 42 days
Jobs created: 0
Built (km): 0 out of 1500
Cost thus far: $0
Govt estimated cost (English): “less than the $50m estimate originally put forward by Mr Key”
Country status: In recession
Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:27 am, April 12th, 2009 - 18 comments
We’ve all been subjected to mainstream journalists gushing over Key’s ’strong leadership’ but now it’s being put to the test and we’re seeing weakness, not strength.
Look at how he has dealt with Richard Worth compared to how Clark dealt with ministers.
When Helen Clark was Prime Minister, especially in her early days, she had the political …
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:15 am, April 9th, 2009 - 33 comments
Time: 14 days
Jobs created: 0
Built (km): 0 out of 1500
Cost thus far: $0
Govt estimated cost: Not $50m this year, next year, or the year after that.
Country status: In recession
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:50 am, March 27th, 2009 - 11 comments
As Minister of Works responding to a disaster in his portfolio, Bob Semple famously said ‘I am responsible but not to blame’. That has become one of our political mores. If they are not personally at fault, ministers shouldn’t have to take the blame when things go wrong but they are responsible for dealing with the …
Written By: Eddie - Date published: 5:38 pm, March 24th, 2009 - 22 comments
Prime Minister John Key has promised a national cycleway to solve the country’s economic woes. I intend to keep you informed of exactly how the cycleway is progressing. Yes, never fear, Eddie will dig out all the dirty details: how far the cycleway’s progressed, how many jobs it’s created, and how much it’s cost.
This cycleway …
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