Walk away John | The Jackal

29 Aug 2013

Walk away John

Yesterday, Stuff reported:

A threat from Prime Minister John Key to "walk away" from Christchurch red-zoners challenging their buyout offers has been labelled offensive and lacking compassion.

Just when you thought John Key couldn't get any lower he goes and makes a despicable and inexcusable threat to people trying to rebuild their lives after the terrible Christchurch earthquakes.

The 68-strong Quake Outcasts group this week won a judicial review of the offer to buy uninsured properties and empty sections at 50 per cent of the land valuation.

Justice Graham Panckhurst ruled on Monday the offer was unlawful and should be revised.

Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee immediately announced plans to appeal, but would not comment before seeking further legal advice.

Why on earth is the government appealing the decision? They are in effect simply wasting more taxpayers money fighting the people of Christchurch instead of doing the right thing.

Why is dragging this through the courts a bad thing you might ask? Consider Rio Tinto recently receiving $30 million of taxpayers dollars without there being any economic benefit known by the government, the $1.7 billion taxpayer bailout of South Canterbury Finance, the $500 million AMI bailout, the asset sale loyalty incentive that will gift at least $40 million to retail investors, National's Open Bank Resolution (OBR) which means all depositors will have their savings reduced overnight to fund a bank’s bailout, the millions of taxpayer dollars spent bailing out leaky homes victims instead of the real culprits paying as well as the millions of dollars (approximately $115 million and climbing) the government is spending to sell our power companies to their rich investor mates...then tell me these Christchurch red-zoners don't deserve a fair deal?

Key yesterday warned the Crown could simply walk away.

"One option is the Government says: ‘Thanks very much, it's been a lot of fun. If you don't want to take the offer, that's where it's at'."

Key threatening to give the Christchurch red-zoners nothing for their land, land that the government was trying to force them to sell for half its value, is a clear abuse of power. That's not the type of person we should have as Prime Minister of New Zealand. John Key should do the honourable thing and walk away from the well paid job he is failing to do properly.

"What do we do when there is an uninsured landslip later in the year because of a flood somewhere? Those land owners will say, 'But you paid out in Christchurch'," Key said.

What Key obviously fails to understand is that insurance for bare sections wasn't and still isn't available.

"It's not easy for the Government."

Outcasts members spoken to were appalled by Key's comments saying they showed a lack of compassion and that he did not understand how hard the situation was for affected residents.

Key apologised today, saying he was sorry if any offence was caused, but his comments needed to be taken in context.

Taken in the context of John Key being a complete idiot, what he said is acceptable. However he's the Prime Minister for god's sake and shouldn't have made such ludicrous statements in the first place.

Furthermore, the countries so-called leader should know how to make a proper apology, because saying if people were offended when they clearly were offended is offensive in itself. It's a Clayton's apology, which considering the circumstances is simply not good enough.

It's not easy being the government? Then resign!