NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Politics

John Armstrong: Never mind ideology, it's all about winning

NZ Herald
6 Jul, 2012 05:30 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Prime Minister John Key. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Prime Minister John Key. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Opinion by

The last time anybody looked up the National Party's official guiding principles, pragmatism was not listed as being one of them.

Equality of opportunity? Yes. Individual freedom? Absolutely. Personal responsibility? Of course. Pragmatism? Definitely not.

In John Key's universe, however, pragmatism is not a dirty word. It is deemed to be one of National's core values.

Or so the Prime Minister suggested in the annual John Howard Lecture which he delivered in Sydney on Thursday night.

Some might say Key was just being honest - if patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, then pragmatism is the unspoken preserve of conservative-minded politicians like him.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

But Key does not bother to hide his pragmatism or try to dress it up as something more worthy. As Thursday's speech revealed, he positively rejoices in it.

Some on the left have long argued that Key's portrayal of himself as a moderate conservative is a front and that behind the friendly visage lurks a cool-blooded animal as keen to push a free market-oriented agenda as any disciple of the New Right.

But Key is into his fourth year as prime minister, so that alleged alter ego would surely have emerged long before now.

Sure, the National minority government has undergone a slight lurch to the right since last year's election, beating the drum on welfare reform, getting more hard-nosed on housing the poor, seeking to break the power of the teacher unions, slowly privatising the public service, and floating portions of state-owned companies on the stock market.

With the exception of the charter schools experiment, however, Key-led National is hardly Act in drag.

Discover more

Opinion

John Armstrong: English puts Labour on the spot during defensive week for National

20 Jun 05:30 PM
Opinion

John Armstrong: Attack on migrants thin on the facts

22 Jun 05:30 PM
Opinion

John Armstrong: Right price vital for credibility of power sale

25 Jun 09:30 PM
Opinion

John Armstrong: Key warps to future as others left behind

29 Jun 05:30 PM

One reason Key wears his pragmatism almost as a badge of honour is that he has little choice. MMP and multi-party parliaments mean the onus is on prime ministers to be good managers rather than great reformers.

Tidy management - the missing element in National's rather chaotic first six months of this year - is paramount. As for reform, the cruel mathematics of MMP mean it can only be achieved in incremental bites if a party wants to stay in power.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The pending part-asset sales are testimony to that. Everyone knows the mixed-ownership model is nothing other than a halfway house to the power generators eventually falling completely into private hands. National's unconvincing pretence otherwise is one reason it has lost the debate over asset sales.

Such limitations on governing power under MMP were acknowledged in Key's Thursday's speech.

He argued that a series of moderate changes could still add up to a considerable programme of government activity.

The question is whether Key's preference for keeping the bulk of the public on side on most issues most of the time holds National back from doing more as the governing party.

That clearly has not been the case this year. But it has also been a very torrid six months for National. The party may have suffered only minor damage in the polls, and there is no sign that voters see Labour as a suitable and ready alternative.

But the Government and Opposition blocs are now level-pegging. The margin for error on National's part is now approaching zero.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Thursday night's speech sounded like a pitch for the centre vote, an attempt by Key to reassert National's dominance in that crucial swing voter territory.

What the speech most definitely was not was a clarion call for radical reform.

Whether it marks the end of National's post-election lurch to the right remains to be seen. But there is no question where Key feels most comfortable.

There are signs he and his colleagues are listening again; that the Government is once again focused on reading the mood of the public and responding accordingly.

The fatal mixture of bravado and arrogance which was creeping into the Beehive seems to have dissipated.

It has been replaced by a gritty realism that with no money to spend and an economy barely ticking over, the job of grinding out victory in 2014 starts now.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

That is going to require that National gets itself on the right side of the argument on every issue, thus squeezing Labour to the margins.

It helps that the public is not in the mood for luxuries such as a full emissions trading scheme.

The great majority of people now want economic growth above everything else even if that has environmental effects - something highlighted by this week's Herald-DigiPoll survey, in which nearly 70 per cent of respondents supported an increase in oil, gas and mineral exploration.

Much of the change in National's frame of mind can be put down to one thing. The public backlash on increased teacher-student ratios was a much-needed wake-up call. Key seems to be in a better frame of mind. He is no longer a grump at his weekly press conference.

It is pure conjecture, but he may have accepted that while he obviously would wish to leave a reform of major proportions as the legacy of his tenure, he is not going to be remembered as that kind of prime minister.

He is more likely to be remembered as a popular prime minister who was good at managing major crises and good at winning elections. It was no accident that his speech drew on Sir Keith Holyoake as the model for what National stands for.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Whether by accident or design, however, it is another National prime minister whose phraseology Key has adapted to measure his success.

Key says the test of any prime minister is whether he or she leaves the country in better shape than when he or she inherited it.

It is a somewhat higher test than the one Sir Robert Muldoon invoked before his tenure - that he hoped to leave the country no worse off than he found it.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Politics

Politics

Abuse in care: Extra $7m for redress pool after more people eligible than expected

Premium
OpinionMatthew Hooton

Matthew Hooton: Labour’s chance to distance itself from Te Pāti Māori

Premium
OpinionAudrey Young

Audrey Young: Bishop puts boot into councils as rates table reveals biggest hikes


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Politics

Abuse in care: Extra $7m for redress pool after more people eligible than expected
Politics

Abuse in care: Extra $7m for redress pool after more people eligible than expected

The total from the Government available for redress payments is now $26.56m.

17 Jul 05:00 PM
Premium
Premium
Matthew Hooton: Labour’s chance to distance itself from Te Pāti Māori
Matthew Hooton
OpinionMatthew Hooton

Matthew Hooton: Labour’s chance to distance itself from Te Pāti Māori

17 Jul 05:00 PM
Premium
Premium
Audrey Young: Bishop puts boot into councils as rates table reveals biggest hikes
Audrey Young
OpinionAudrey Young

Audrey Young: Bishop puts boot into councils as rates table reveals biggest hikes

17 Jul 12:42 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP