KEY POINTS:
In his handling of the first "crisis" to confront him as Prime Minister, John Key has been taught a few instructive lessons about not just keeping in step with public opinion, but the need to stay ahead of it.
In sending an Air Force Hercules to Malaysia in readiness to ferry stranded New Zealanders out of next-door Thailand, Key has emerged on the right side of the ledger after what was a mixed 24 hours for him.
Yesterday afternoon's announcement showed the sort of leadership that had seemed in abeyance during the morning as the Government appeared at sixes and sevens about which was the best option to get New Zealanders home.
In particular, there seemed to be no contingency plan for an emergency evacuation should the civil unrest in Bangkok suddenly turn violent - as it did with a grenade attack on anti-government protesters at the city's domestic airport.
On Monday, Key had talked confidently of the "options" available to his Government, including chartering an Air New Zealand plane or dispatching an Air Force passenger aircraft to Thailand to pick up the New Zealanders stuck there because of the blockade of Bangkok's international airport.
Key, however, was left somewhat red-faced yesterday when he had to admit neither of the Air Force's two Boeing 757s was available for a rescue mission because they were undergoing special maintenance in the United States.
Meanwhile, Labour slammed Key for not having contacted his Australian counterpart, Kevin Rudd, in order to get a co-ordinated transtasman response to the crisis.
Rubbing salt into the wound, Phil Goff suggested Key ring him (Goff) or Helen Clark for some advice on how to handle the evacuation of stranded New Zealanders.
Goff insisted his offer was genuine. The implication, however, was that the new Prime Minister was showing his inexperience and making a right royal hash of things.
What is not in question is that something Key and his ministers thought they had well under control rapidly got away on them.
On Monday, Key had seemed to settle on an arrangement that would have seen 20 or so New Zealanders getting out each day on a special Thai Airways flight from a military base near Bangkok.
However, with Australia being seen to be doing more for its citizens marooned in the Thai capital, public sentiment was starting to shift away from the view that being stuck in Bangkok was simply bad luck to a view expecting the Government to make every effort to bring New Zealanders home as soon as possible.
That the Government was no longer in sync with that mood even though it thought it was doing the right thing is a valuable lesson for Key on how public perception of a Government's handling of something can change rapidly.
It is also a valuable lesson in not being buried under the advice of officials. Key is at his best when he trusts his instincts - as he did yesterday, ending the inertia by ordering the Hercules to Malaysia.
The other lesson is to never give the enemy a break.
That the 757s were unavailable was not Key's fault. After some prompting at an afternoon press conference yesterday, he finally took a leaf out of Helen Clark's book by expressing his unhappiness with the Defence Force for having both aircraft undergoing programmed maintenance at the same time.
But he could also have rounded on Labour for allowing that to happen under its watch - especially as the Minister of Defence before the election was none other than Phil Goff.
