Well, I guess he can be considering his investment portfolio earns him so much money he is able to donate his Prime Minister's salary to charity. He also sent his kids to private school and Steffi has spent the last few years in France, studying I presume. He and his lovely wife live in a lovely big house in Parnell with their cat and Max, and it looks very comfortable from what I can see from the Women's Weekly articles I have read.
But John Key seems to be very comfortable with a lot of other things that many of us Kiwis are not so comfortable with, such as:
- Hekia Parata's communication ability and how well she has performed as the Minister of Education.
- How the Novopay debacle has been handled, particulary the role his Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister and leader, Bill English, has played.
- That Steven Joyce will be able to solve the Novopay problem.
- That so many people, particulary skilled and educated people, are leaving New Zealand to work in Australia.
- That the people who have now lost their jobs or are owed thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars courtesy to Mainzeal going into receivership will find new jobs.
- That the NZ dollar is so high compared to the American dollar.
- The affordability and accessability of housing in New Zealand to rent or own.
- The impact
- Privacy issues and how they are handled, from the MSD kiosks, to ACC files going to the wrong person, to Novopay payslips being sent to the wrong people and schools being able to access details of people who don't work for them.
But I can tell you that people out there, the people who don't live on Planet Key, are not comfortable with how things are going.
This is a screen shot of a little interaction I've been having on Twitter the last couple of days with so meone who is/was a Mainzeal employee and does not live on Planet Key. As you can see, NzedKIWI is not comfortable with the situation, nor confident about finding work in a hurry.
Google Novopay and you will come up with endless stories of teachers and support staff who have not been paid correctly if at all. You will also find stories of Hekia Parata and Craig Foss as well as Talent2 not appologising or taking responsibility. You will see stories detailing how the milestones have not been met as the payroll system was developed, how the errors were evident before the "Go Live" was given and that it could take up to two years to fix. You will see stories about the inquiries and investigations into who is responsible (I have that answer, it won't cost much for me to tell you) and how these investigations and inquiries and the fix will cost the tax payers even more money! Yet John Key seems to be comfortable with all this. So comfortable that Hekia Parata is still the Minister of Education!
However there are many education workers who are not comfortable. They can't pay their rent or mortgage. Bills like credit cards, telephone and internet, electricity, rates, insurance, HPs, etc can't be paid. There have been stories of people not being able to put food on the table or petrol in their cars to go to work.
It is so bad now that someone wrote on Campbell Live's Facebook wall about how they were behind someone in the checkout at the supermarket this last Wedneday, the day money should have been in every education workers' bank account. Their card declined, they couldn't pay for the basic staples they had put on the counter. The education worker burst into tears, appologised to the check out person and went out to the ATM to check their balance. They found they had not been paid. The CL contributor followed the education worker, and offered to pay for the groceries. The education worker, tearfully declined. The CL contributer was so incensed they posted on Campbell Live's wall encouraging them to further push into the Novopay debacle. So obviously, the CL contributer is just as uncomfortable about the Novopay issue as many education workers are.
Just briefly, many people in NZ are not comfortable that their nearest and dearest have to go to Australia to get work, thus separating families. Many people are not comfortable that NZ is not going the next step with Kyoto or monitoring our environment appropriately and reporting on it. Many people feel that this messes with our clean, green image, with out 100% Pure image. And that we are not that clean and green as we would like to be also leaves many people uncomfortable. There are many people who are not comfortable that they can not afford to rent or buy a house, especially in Auckland and Christchurch. There are many manufacturers and farmers that are not comfortable with how high the dollar is.
As a teacher and about to be a first home buyer who has watched friends move to Australia for a 'better life' and is not happy with aspects of our environment, I am not comfortable John Key. I am most uncomfortable with the fact that you are so comfortable about everything!!
John Key, you fail the standard.
