John Key
Sir John Phillip Key is a New Zealand retired politician who served as the 38th prime minister of New Zealand from 2008 to 2016 and as leader of the National Party from 2006 to 2016.
Following his father's death when he was eight, Key was raised by his single mother in a state-house in the Christchurch suburb of Bryndwr. He attended the University of Canterbury and graduated in 1981 with a Bachelor of Commerce. He began a career in the foreign exchange market in New Zealand before moving overseas to work for Merrill Lynch, in which he became head of global foreign exchange in 1995, a position he would hold for six years. In 1999 he was appointed a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York until leaving in 2001.
Key entered the New Zealand Parliament representing the Auckland electorate of Helensville as one of the few new National members of parliament in the election of 2002 following National's significant defeat of that year. In 2004, he was appointed Finance Spokesman for National and eventually succeeded Don Brash as the National Party leader in 2006. After two years as leader of the Opposition, Key led his party to victory at the November 2008 general election. He was subsequently sworn in as prime minister on 19 November 2008. The National government went on to win two more general elections under his leadership: in November 2011 and September 2014. Key was expected to contest for a fourth term of office at the 2017 general election, but on 5 December 2016 he resigned as prime minister and leader of the National Party. He was succeeded by Bill English on 12 December 2016. After resigning from both posts in December 2016 and leaving politics, Key was appointed to the board of directors and role of chairman in several New Zealand corporations.
As prime minister, Key led the Fifth National Government of New Zealand which entered government at the beginning of the late-2000s recession in 2008. He was described as supporting both socially liberal and economically liberal policies. Key was worth an estimated USD$35 million in 2016, making him the wealthiest individual ever to assume the premiership. In his first term, Key's government implemented a GST rise and personal tax cuts, while enacting several austerity measures. His government refused to renew license agreements for multiple television channels, including TVNZ 6, TVNZ 7, Kidzone and Heartland, while reducing funding for Radio New Zealand in real terms. In February 2011, after a major earthquake in Christchurch the nation's second largest city significantly affected the national economy, the government formed the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority. In its second term, Key's government implemented a policy of partial privatisation of five state-owned enterprises, while voters in a citizens-initiated referendum on the issue were 2 to 1 opposed to the policy. He also faced a severe housing crisis, especially in Auckland, and was widely criticised for a perceived lack of action. In foreign policy, Key withdrew New Zealand Defence Force personnel from their deployment in the war in Afghanistan, signed the Wellington Declaration with the United States and pushed for more nations to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Early life and education
Key was born in Auckland to George Key and Ruth Key on 9 August 1961. His father was an English immigrant and a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and World War II, who died of a heart attack when his son was eight years old. Key and his two sisters were raised in a state house in the Christchurch suburb of Bryndwr by his mother, an Austrian-Jewish refugee who escaped the Holocaust. Key is the third prime minister or premier of New Zealand to have Jewish ancestry, after Julius Vogel and Francis Bell.He attended Aorangi School, and then Burnside High School from 1975 to 1979, where he met his wife, Bronagh. He went on to attend the University of Canterbury and earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree in accounting in 1981. He also attended management studies courses at Harvard University, in the United States.
Career before politics
Key's first job was as an auditor at McCulloch Menzies in 1982. He then became a project manager at Christchurch-based clothing manufacturer Lane Walker Rudkin for two years. He began working as a foreign exchange dealer at Elders Finance in Wellington, and rose to the position of head foreign exchange trader two years later, then moved to Auckland-based Bankers Trust in 1988.In 1995, he joined Merrill Lynch as head of Asian foreign exchange in Singapore. That same year he was promoted to Merrill's global head of foreign exchange, based in London, where he may have earned around US$2.25 million a year including bonuses, which is about NZ$5 million at 2001 exchange rates. Some co-workers called him "the smiling assassin" for maintaining his usual cheerfulness while sacking dozens of staff after heavy losses from the 1998 Russian financial crisis. He was a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the New York Federal Reserve Bank from 1999 to 2001.
In 1998, on learning of his interest in pursuing a political career, National Party president John Slater began working to recruit him. Former party leader Jenny Shipley describes him as one of the people she "deliberately sought out and put my head on the line–either privately or publicly–to get them in there".
Early political career
Early years in Parliament
Auckland's population growth led to the formation for the 2002 general election of a new electorate called Helensville, which covered the north-western corner of the Auckland urban area. Key beat long-serving National MP Brian Neeson for the National Party Helensville selection. At the 2002 general election Key won the seat with a majority of 1,705, ahead of Labour's Gary Russell, with Neeson, now standing as an independent, coming third.The National Party was heavily defeated in the 2002 election, receiving only 20.9% of the party vote – the party's worst-ever election result. Following the fallout, a leadership coup against the incumbent Bill English was launched by Don Brash, another of the 2002 recruits, in October 2003. English and his supporters offered Key the finance spokesman position for his vote and were confident they had the numbers with him on their side. Brash narrowly won 14 votes to 12 and at the time it was thought Key had changed his support to Brash. The votes were confidential, although later Key stated that he did vote for English.
Key won re-election at the 2005 general election, garnering 63% of votes cast. He increased his majority again in, gaining 73% of the electorate vote.
Finance spokesman
The low numbers in the National caucus meant Key was given more opportunities and responsibilities than most new Members of Parliament would. After serving as deputy finance spokesman under Brash, Key was promoted to the Opposition front benches in 2004 as party spokesman for finance. Key was up against Michael Cullen, the Minister of Finance and a veteran of 23 years in parliament. There was concern he would be out of his depth going up against Cullen in his first term and there was talk among the party of trying to "protect" Key. During the 2005 election campaign political commentators felt Key matched Cullen in the debates, although he may have benefited from Labour focusing their campaign on discrediting Brash.Although Brash lost the election, Key remained as finance spokesman. He was promoted to number four on the list, partly due to his success at selling the party's tax package during the campaign. While Keys ambition to become leader had been telegraphed from early in his political career, he was now beginning to rate highly on preferred prime minister polls. Rumours that Key was looking to take over the leadership circulated and there was an unofficial agreement between Brash and Key that he would be the natural successor.
Things came to a head earlier than expected. In November 2006 Brash resigned as leader, citing damaging speculation over his future as the reason. Brash's resignation followed controversies over an extramarital affair, and over leaked internal National Party documents that were later published in the book The Hollow Men. After months of speculation, Key stood for leadership of the party and was elected unopposed.
Leader of the Opposition
On becoming leader Key convinced Gerry Brownlee, deputy leader under Brash, to step aside and promoted his main rival English to deputy leader and finance spokesman. He showed a ruthless streak by unceremoniously pushing Brash out and refusing to allow another one of the 2002 recruits, Brian Connell, back into the caucus. In his maiden speech as National Party leader, Key spoke of an "underclass" that had been "allowed to develop" in New Zealand, a theme which received a large amount of media coverage. Key followed up on this speech in February 2007 by committing his party to a programme which would provide food in the poorest schools in New Zealand.In opposition he was instrumental in promoting National's change of policy regarding keeping superannuation and Kiwibank. He also supported interest-free student loans and early childhood education funding. He relented on his stance in opposition to Sue Bradford's Child Discipline Bill, which sought to remove "reasonable force" as a defence for parents charged with prima facie assault of their children. Key and Prime Minister Helen Clark agreed a compromise – giving police the discretion to overlook smacking they regarded as "inconsequential".
In August 2007 Key came in for criticism when he changed his position regarding the Therapeutic Products and Medicine Bill. At the same time Labour's Trevor Mallard hinted in Parliament that Labour would try to link Key to the 1987 "H-Fee" scandal, which involved Key's former employer Elders Merchant Finance and a payment to Equiticorp Chief Executive Allan Hawkins. Hawkins and Elders executive Ken Jarrett were later jailed for fraud. Key declaring that he had left Elders months before the event, that he had no knowledge of the deal, and that his interview with the Serious Fraud Office during the investigation into the affair could only have helped to convict the people involved. Then-SFO director Charles Sturt publicly supported Key's statement.
Labour MPs criticised Key for not releasing specific policy information at their annual conference. Key responded that National would set its own policy agenda and that there was adequate time before the next election for voters to digest National Party policy proposals.