The Jackal: November 2014

26 Nov 2014

When will the PM take responsibility?

It often bemuses me as to why people would vote for a dishonest political party that has spent the last two terms in government undermining our once great democracy. Why on earth would voters support a scoundrel like John Key, a man who has been shown on numerous occasions to be a complete fraudster?

The list of Key’s lies is extensive and is being added to on a daily basis. Albeit in a biased manner, his dishonesty is being reported on. So why aren’t the media en masse and the public they influence demanding a change in government or in the very least the Prime Minister’s resignation? Are we to believe that there's simply no accountability in New Zealand's political system anymore?

Surely the use of a state-spying agency to undermine a political opponent is a serious enough incident to require a new leader. Key is after all the Minister in charge of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service and therefore cannot simply pass the buck. Only a naive fool would believe that the NZSIS simply made mistakes and that there was no political motive in releasing inaccurate information that was used to damage an opposition leader’s credibility.


The head of the SIS wouldn’t under normal circumstances give preferential treatment to a National party attack blogger, Cameron Slater, unless he was instructed to do so. Even when the misinformation they published was highlighted, the SIS did nothing to restore political neutrality. In fact they went out of their way to continue to perpetuate the dishonesty. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand whom this benefited and therefore why it was done.

In my opinion there should be no differentiation between the PM and his office or the portfolios he administers. Only a leader that’s entirely inept would be unaware of the numerous underhanded dealings going on right under his nose. If Key is truly that incompetent then he should resign! However, Key knew full well about the smear campaigning, and for that he should also resign!

If the Prime Minister isn’t willing to take responsibility for the irrefutable misconduct that has been documented throughout Nicky Hager's excellent book, Dirty Politics, then he’s bringing the entire political system into disrepute. John Key is in effect making a mockery of his position as the Prime Minister of New Zealand…He’s making a mockery of parliament and all it stands for as well.