• Scoop Audio: Audio on Demand of NZ Prime Minister John Key's weekly press conference.

“Yes means no and no means yes but we’re all supposed to know what the referendum means," he said.

“Some people that vote 'no' will be voting no on the basis they want to see the law continuing to work as it is today - in other words, that good parents aren’t criminalised for lightly smacking a child.”

Asked whether he would act on the referendum result Prime Minister Key reiterated his support for the current legislation.

“I think it’s a bit harsh to say I would totally ignore a referendum, I think you do have to listen to people. My view’s always been that the law in its current form is working."

The PM said he was relaxed about comments from controversial Families Commission appointee Christine Rankin in Investigate magazine, where she restated her opposite to the current legislation.

The Families Commission has come out in support of the current law and discussion of this tension occupied a fair amount of today’s conference.

On a related matter, the PM initially said his government would pick up the Green Party’s bill bringing greater government control into the wording of referenda, but quickly corrected himself.

Press Gallery “So the Government’s going to pick up this bill?”

Prime Minister “We are - Well we’re in discussions with the Green party about that, but I see some real merit in it”.

In other news, the PM said the dole queue is growing by 1000 people a week, which is slightly quicker than predicted. He said most of those newly unemployed live in Auckland.

Key, who also holds the Tourism portfolio, said swine flu risks damaging our tourism industry in the short term. However more than one million people visited from Australia in the year to May setting a new record.

The Prime Minister’s upcoming speaking engagements include an address to the United Nations General Assembly in September, but he said he is unlikely to attend climate change discussions in Copenhagen at the end of the year.

The PM also commented the state of New Zealand’s economy, the country’s growing prison population, the validity of recent elections in Iran, and the possible closure of his old primary school, Aorangi. When asked about the Christchurch school's closure the PM noted that he was once struck by the bell while on duty as bell monitor.

Click for big version
Prime Minister Key: says he was once struck by a bell

Home Page | HeadLines | Previous Story | Next Story

Copyright (c) Scoop Media

Weekend Magazine: Werewolf Issue 28

Gordon Campbell: Why State Capitalism Is Beating The Free Market

Late last month, the Economist magazine published a debate on state capitalism, in which it proposed that state-led market economies are fast becoming a global rival to the old models of liberal, free market capitalism. The chapter and verse it provided is indeed pretty impressive... More>>

Gordon Campbell: Human Rights, Pinochet And Asset Freezes An interview with Baron Collins of Mapesbury, recently retired judge from the British Supreme Court. Politicians are always tempted to take pot shots at judges, who have relatively few friends among the general public... More>>

Rosalea Barker: Undaunted Oakland It gets really tiring living in Oakland. Practically every television newscast is straight from the police blotter. Murders. Marches. Mayhem. Mayoral recall. (Oops! That last one’s from the OPD to-do list.) More>>

Lyndon Hood: The 'Other' People In Your Neighbourhood Under a pile of unused plastic spoons I happened to find an old tin of film. There was no clue as to its contents, and it was just made more mysterious by a note on the label… More>>