State Of It: The Strange Traits Of Prime Minister John Key

There's this weird situation that's developed where the National-Led Government has sent mixed messages over the reality of whether the Tamil asylum seekers would ever reach New Zealand.

Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman said it was unlikely the vessel was heading, or would make it, to New Zealand and added that it was unlikely those on board it would ever get here.

Opposing this view we had the Prime Minister John Key stating that the captain of the boat said they were coming to New Zealand – and added that it may have been bound for elsewhere, that it was only a matter of time before more ships would target New Zealand.

Opposing the Prime Minister's view was his Minister Dr Coleman who said there was no concrete evidence the boat was coming to New Zealand. He added: "The reality is you would expect there to be things like maps on board, charts that would indicate their true destination."

That wasn't good enough apparently.

The Prime Minister then undermined the credibility of his Minister saying: "He hasn't had an intelligence briefing, he's had a briefing from his officials, there's a difference."

There are many issues at play here:

* One: should the Prime Minister demonise the asylum seekers even before their plight has been investigated by the appropriate agencies?

* A second issue is: Are Kiwis comfortable with the Prime Minister saying they are queue jumpers, and stating that to consider their assertions - that they are seeking refuge from the slaughter policies of the Sri Lankan Government – would be pandering to crooks and human traffickers...

* A third is how this Prime Minister attacks the credibility of anyone who has a counter-position or argument to his chosen line.

We saw this same weird behaviour trait when the Prime Minister was challenged in that UK interview where he claimed NZ was 100% Pure. The interviewer cited a scientist here, backed up by other scientists, that claimed NZ is far from 100% pure.

The Prime Minister replied the scientists were not credible and that he could cite other scientists who supported his premise that NZ is 100% pure.

Within a month we had ministers like Nick Smith getting on board with efforts to clean up NZ's dreadful pollution of our waterways and ecology.

Then there was the dreadful situation on ANZAC weekend where respected investigative journalist Jon Stephenson, Metro Magazine and its editor Simon Wilson, revealed that NZ SAS soldiers had handed over captives to US and Afghani forces and agencies knowing that they would or would likely be tortured.

The Prime Minister said Stephenson was frankly not credible, and ruled out any inquiry into the claims.

This behaviour is a matter of public interest.

The real issue here is: is this Prime Minister's trait of undermining others actually denting his own credibility? And, if not, why not?

Admittedly, the Prime Minister would have had intel briefings on this asylum seeker issue. But if the Ahmed Zaoui case showed us anything... it is that Politicians should not take the briefings of the NZ Security Intelligence Service without question.

For the Prime Minister to say: "These are people who are trying to jump the queue. The people-smugglers themselves are trafficking in human misery. They are people that are putting at risk the lives of those asylum seekers on the boat." - Frankly, that is just not good enough.

No court nor investigative body has determined that to be the case. Not yet. Really, the Prime Minister's credibility is what is left wanting on this issue.

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