KEY POINTS:
It's 4.39pm and John Key is nine minutes late for his second most important Monday engagement - the Prime Minister's weekly press conference which follows the day's Cabinet meeting.
As far as the 30 or so Press Gallery journalists waiting in the Beehive Theatrette are concerned, Key isn't
fashionably late. With their deadlines fast approaching, he's just late.
"At least there is continuity from one Prime Minister to the next," observes one in sarcastic reference to Key's predecessor's similar punctuality.
Key arrives a minute later. He apologises, says he was held up at a meeting of the Executive Council. (Well, you cannot rush the Governor-General, can you, simply to keep the media happy?) But Key promises to do better next Monday.
Over the following 27 minutes, his first post-Cabinet press conference canvasses issues ranging from the closure of Bangkok's international airport, National's 100-day action plan, the signing of a tax agreement with the United States, whether National will restore the Air Force's long-lapsed air-strike capability, the international financial crisis and National's intention to reverse Labour's decision to overturn the phasing out of incandescent lightbulbs.
Labour, however, barely rates a mention as journalists gently probe Key on the one issue which has seen the new Government come in for criticism - climate change policy.
Key effectively gives an assurance the special select committee tasked with coming up with an alternative emissions trading scheme to the one introduced by Labour will not be spending its time relitigating arguments about whether there is human-induced climate change.
"That is the term of reference proposed by the Act Party," Key says. In other words, that's not National's view, although Key does not say so quite as directly.
The Monday press conference enables a Prime Minister to say things without saying things. A particular inflection in Helen Clark's voice or change in her facial expression could speak volumes about the previous Prime Minister's real opinion of something or someone compared with the official version.
Journalists could pick up what she meant. If that resulted in trouble, she could still deny she had ever said it. Such is the symbiotic relationship between politician and political journalist.
Key, obviously, has some way to go on that front. And his Monday audience has to work out when he means something and when he doesn't.
At the moment, he is pretty direct and informative in answering questions - a freedom briefly enjoyed by new Prime Ministers who have a blank canvas in front of them and no baggage in the job to encumber them from saying what they want to say. And, sometimes, more than they are supposed to say.
Talking about New Zealanders stranded in Bangkok, Key details plans to get people home via Thai Airways flights from a military airport 160km from Bangkok. The Cabinet had discussed other options, but he would not be detailing them.
A few questions later and he has confirmed those options include flying one of the Air Force's Boeing 757 passenger aircraft to Thailand or contracting an Air New Zealand aircraft to go.
Key is also in that zone where, as the new Prime Minister heading a new Government, everything is an "option" to be considered or explored.
The Prime Minister's press conference has long been a tradition at Parliament, although it is the incumbent's prerogative whether to hold them or not. The tradition briefly lapsed during Jim Bolger's tenure in the 1990s after then TV3 political editor Bill Ralston mercilessly lampooned the Prime Minister on Nightline.
Helen Clark both surprised and pleased the Press Gallery by reinstating the press conference when she took office in 1999.
Key is obliged to continue. But some journalists are already making dark predictions about for how long. Clark may be a hard act to follow. Yesterday's press conference was hardly a baptism of fire. Key does not shirk a challenge, however. And he is most unlikely to shirk this one.