Good hair day for John Key - Ponytail-gate as dead as dodo

Anyone under the impression that John Key had it coming to him in Parliament yesterday - and deservedly so - must be sorely disappointed by what happened. Or rather did not happen.

Those angered by the Prime Minister's pestering of Auckland waitress Amanda Bailey may well feel they have been short-changed by Opposition parties who yesterday opted not to stretch Key on the parliamentary rack in what was the first opportunity since his return from overseas.

It is not uncommon for predictions that some trouble-struck minister or MP is going to suffer the latter-day equivalent of being hung, drawn and quartered once his or her problem hits the parliamentary fan to turn out to be totally misplaced. All the ingredients for a major stoush may be present, only for things to fall flat in the House.

That was the case yesterday. But it was no accident. The Opposition parties seemed to be going through the motions - when they could be bothered to put any kind of heat on the Prime Minister which, at most, was only lukewarm.

Winston Peters opted to devote his sole primary question to quizzing Key on the matter of Chinese ownership of New Zealand dairy farms. The Greens also chose not to use their allocation to ping Key over his personal conduct.

Labour's Andrew Little did pose questions on "ponytail-gate". These included asking Key whether he accepted that repeatedly pulling a woman's hair despite her indicating to him to stop was unworthy of any grown man, let alone the Prime Minister; and whether he accepted that his embarrassing and weird behaviour had made the office of the Prime Minister of New Zealand an international laughing stock.

Key gave the same replies about "misreading the situation" he had already given to the media in answer to similar questions.

But then Little suddenly changed tack to Key's handling of the behaviour of other ministers, such as Simon Bridges' breach of the provisions of the Cabinet Manual.

By this stage, one thing was very clear. The Opposition's attitude suggested those parties considered there was little more to be milked from ponytail-gate. Further pursuit of the matter only risked annoying those who never considered it mattered in the first place.

Key can breathe easier. There is still the question of whether he ends up facing court action for alleged assault as well as the question of whether Bailey takes a case to the Employment Court.

Inside the precincts of Parliament, however, ponytail-gate can now be declared, politically speaking, to be as dead as the proverbial dodo.

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