UPDATE: David vs Goliath – Key chickens out!

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John Key allowed his frustration to get the better of him at yesterdays press conference when he responded to a question on housing affordability by shooting back that he would debate David Cunliffe on the issue.

Cunliffe has accepted.

The debate carries huge risks for David because Key is a Goliath. The Prime Minister has chewed through John Campbell, Helen Clark, Phil Goff, David Shearer and he will want to crush Cunliffe before the opposition momentum builds.

With the possible MANA and Internet Party alliance sucking up all the media oxygen, National haven’t managed to get any attention, not even when Paula Bennett bashed beneficiaries flying overseas. The desire to snatch it back with an impromptu leaders debate on housing affordability feels more like desperation.

This clash will be a fascinating debate with much to lose on both sides.

UPDATE: Well, well, well. Prime Minister John Key, after delivering the challenge has now chickened out of the very debate he challenged Cunliffe over!

Give me a C.
Give me an H.
Give me an I.
Give ne a C.
Give me a K.
Give me an E.
Give me an N.

What do you got? Chicken.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

I thought it looked like an act of off the cuff desperation, and it turns out it was.

24 COMMENTS

  1. As I’ve said on this web site many times before Martyn, THIS issue will be the ‘KEY” election decider.
    It will resonate with the voting public as it’s a CLEAR (and more easily understood) difference between (the NOT for the majority of Kiwis) National party and the (looking too much like a John Key lite) Labour party.
    DC gave the best interview I’ve ever seen him give (re: about foreign speculators in the NZ housing market) at the weekend and he looked GENUINE (for a change), knowledgable and confident, even though the interviewer and program ARE heavily BIASED towards National……such that it’s almost a propaganda program (a la your Jong Kee theme).
    So IF Labour add this to their ‘to do list’ in the first 100 days of power, it will raise their vote hugely and also (be a great double whammy) take votes away from National AND NZFirst.
    A win win, If he can keep his head in the ‘face2face’. Here’s hoping he’s as well briefed (as he was oat w-e), and don’t forget to tell the public, these foreign speculators, don’t care about NZ, don’t vote, don’t pay ANY taxes in NZ, and other than probably making political donations (anonymously of course, under $25K a time….) then they do NOTHING for NZ and financially HURT the vast majority of Kiwis today and MORE SO, in the future.
    We went to war(s) for less than a fear of a future that could make Kiwis slaves in their own country.

    And the cry of ‘house prices will collapse’ is pathetic. YES they will fall and yes they’ll fall a long way. BUT, show me the stats for what the MAJORITY of Labour voters will loose on a property, over the life time of their ‘house owning’ life and I GUARANTEE the vast majority will still be miles ahead financially.

  2. DC needs to remember when National try and accuse him of potentially crashing the NZ housing marketing that…………

    Nick Smith is claiming……….house prices need to move back to four times income.

    So Labour CANT have CRASHED the housing market, when houses fall to that level !!!!……..which is about a 40% price drop. AS National say this is a fair level.
    ………n.b……..They should fall to three times income to be historically fair and SANE, but thats a slightly different argument.

    THERE WILL BE A housing price correction and it will be significant, WHEN the housing speculators are flushed out. That doesn’t make it’s Labour fault. National got it to these insane levels, so Labour aren’t crashing it, by bringing it back to common sense levels.

    You can’t have it both ways, in an unbiased press JK.
    If 4x is fair then a drop back to that level IS NOT a crash.
    But then again NZ NOW has no unbiased MSM, so he’ll be probably be able to play the Sheeple of NZ off against each other. So VERY SAD !!!!

    • THERE WILL BE A housing price correction and it will be significant, WHEN the housing speculators are flushed out. That doesn’t make it’s Labour fault. National got it to these insane levels, so Labour aren’t crashing it, by bringing it back to common sense levels.

      Labour didn’t exactly cover themselves with glory over house prices during their last reign.

  3. NZ is the cheapest, cleanest, safest, most stable place for climate change refugees – don’t expect to see any significant drops any time soon.

  4. I totally agree that speculators are a huge problem in our housing market but there’s a real fly in the ointment with the housing issue which is that current prices are a reasonable reflection of the costs to build a house (well, maybe not in Auckland but everywhere else).

  5. It should really be a debate between John Key and Russel Norman – the Greens are the only party with a genuine state housing alternative. I’m picking Key to win because Labour’s housing policy is really just a lukewarm alternative, that will ultimately be ineffective .It will leave the greater amount of renters out in the cold as always.

  6. Labour has grabbed the headlines again! NO TRUCKS IN THE FAST LANE!!! With policy announcements like this I agree it’s hard for National to get a look in. Can we have more of these meaty policy announcements please? There is no doubt these are potential vote winners!

    • The bullshit is fair flying from National.

      Gerry Brownlee getting breathless over minor details out of Labour transport announcements and ridiculing them. Funny that because common sense with heavy vehicles not blocking Nationals beloved motorways seems to have hit a raw donor nerve.

      Same with DC not being in parliament for question time in favour of delivering a speech to a business audience for the Institute of Directors in Auckland. Key tries to blow this up out of all proportion as DC running scared. Yet he’ll be there tomorrow for Keys lame gags time.

      Now Bill English claiming wages will rise some ridiculous amount up until, gee let me guess around the time of the next election but only if we vote National. And yet under his tenure wage growth has been utterly miserable and worse if one works for the government (politicians aside).

      And on it will go. The question is, why does anyone believe anything these people say??

      • Minor details? Announcing a ban on trucks in the fast lane, when the fine print actually says it is only for 3 and 4 lane motorways, around 70km’s out of 11,000 km’s of highway? This is not minor, this is sheer and utter incompetence the like NZ has probably never seen before.

      • I think only they believe what they say.
        I think we are all smarter than them.

        Come on Labour – lead the way forward, and lift us up – out of this National assault on our country and citizens!

    • Well said JC, this is the Cunliffe we all wanted to see. Everyone has been saying for years that Labour needs to speak out on behalf of struggling small automobiles.
      Just last week I was saying that Labour needs to tax the rich, but I can see where I was wrong – how is taxing the rich going to speed up the fast lane on the highway? What’s the point of pushing for economic equality when trucks are in the wrong lane.

      I’ve just emailed my local Labour branch and told them I’m keen to help out with the campaign this election. Hope I can believe in

  7. There is a very good reason Key wouldn’t debate this issue with Cunliffe before the election campaign. With Labour polling in the 20’s, National’s biggest opposition is over-confidence. If Key debated Cunliffe Key would crush him, which would only make that problem worse.

    • Cunliffe would be the winner through honesty.
      Key would be the loser through Cunliffe’s honesty.

      Key stood down from his own challenge. Very interesting. Must have something to hide, and David maybe knows about it.

      Key lost when he stood down.

      My opinion and belief.

      • I don’t agree that Key is a goliath at all. I think he’s a self-serving ignoramus. And he’s not even going to be there with National after the elections! So who cares?
        They are already disbanding themselves; 12 stepping down, and then Collins duplicitous fiasco.

        It will even be a waste of time for National supporters to vote for National – because there won’t be any National party left, even if they could win! What a farce they all are.

        At this stage Labour can have my vote, but never this bunch of wayward Nats!

  8. Intrinsicvalue says:
    April 16, 2014 at 10:03 pm

    There is a very good reason Key wouldn’t debate this issue with Cunliffe before the election campaign.

    No, you mean Key chickened out.

    If you can stop being a sycophantic apologist for the National/ACT parties long enough, why did Key issue the challenge in the first place?

    Key miscalculated badly and has come out of this looking like a fool.

    • No, Key said they would debate the issue, and they will…in Parliament and on the hustings. If I was a Labour supporter I’d be delaying the inevitable skilleting Key will give Cunliffe as long as possible.

      • Now you’re apologising for Key?! *pffft!*

        If I was a Labour supporter I’d be delaying the inevitable skilleting Key will give Cunliffe as long as possible.

        Big talk from an anonymous little man, IV. Key issued the challenge; Cunliffe took it up; Key backed out.

        You and your boss, Key, both end up looking like dicks. 😀

  9. From this point on, in the matters of the election – it won’t matter about any of the debates between Cunliffe and Key.

    Most NZers already know that Key is not an honest man, so all Cunliffe has to do is speak openly and honestly in any debates, and he will win hands down, and this will show up Key for what most of us already know he is.

    Cunliffe will be the winner, and Key will be the loser.

    Funny how Key stood down from his own challenge though – maybe Key knows that Cunliffe has something on him – Hilarious!

    My opinion and belief.

Comments are closed.