If National wins ...

[Daytr]

Turnbull has got rid of knighthoods. ! Good move, something Key could learn from. I would have thought changing this back makes far ,ore sense than a flag change. Referendum looming. I expect the turnout to be a complete flop and it will be $26M squandered by one man's fantasy.

[airedale]

Key will not follow Turnbull on this. Key has his eye set on a knighthood for himself. These so called honours are archaic and irrelevant.

[fungus pudding]

Turnbull has got rid of knighthoods. ! Good move, something Key could learn from. I would have thought changing this back makes far ,ore sense than a flag change. Referendum looming. I expect the turnout to be a complete flop and it will be $26M squandered by one man's fantasy.

It cannot possibly be a flop as long as one person 'turns up'. I will, Key will, and no doubt a few others as is normal with postal voting.

[Sgt Pepper]

It cannot possibly be a flop as long as one person 'turns up'. I will, Key will, and no doubt a few others as is normal with postal voting.

I am not particularly concerned as to the question on the referendum paper. I do believe, however, that referenda should always, unless there is a compelling reason to the contrary, be held in conjunction with a general election .Thus unnecessary costs, which long suffering taxpayers have to endure, are avoided. The knighthood debate is interesting. Australia wishes to keep their flag(with the Union Jack in the corner) but abolish knighthoods. We,(meaning John Key) want to change our flag and retain Knighthoods. Its intriguing to see how Keys stance has evolved from being " a little bit republican" in 2003 to staying with the Queen at Balmoral and retaining Knighthoods.If he perceived it to be in his self interest and detected a significant shift in public opinion he would once again become more republican than Robespierre in the French Revolution. But as many people have long realised this vain, superficial man is not a conviction politician by any stretch of the imagination.

[Daytr]

Am I missing some form of sarcasm here FP?
A low response rate will indeed be a flop & a waste of tax payer money.
Well at least if the answer in the 2nd referendum is no to change, which I'm pretty confident it will be we will save some money. Pity we couldn't just not squander tax payer money from the start on one man's ego trip.

Agree SP. it a strange stance here as Key re-introduced Knighthoods etc correct? And then to want to get rid of the current flag & reference to the union jack. I'm no monarchist, however when in fact it is actually a good time to change the flag in another generation's time I would like to think we wouldn't want to hide from our past links and some sort of link between Maori & European symbolism would be a good balance I would have thought.

I also agree if we are to have referendums then yes of course when there is no urgency, do it at the same time as the election.
What a complete waste of money its going to be. I mean we could get a 3rd Panda for that! ;-)

Shame we can't fund our mental health services properly though & the police are being used inappropriately as the response unit in many cases.
Can't fund DOC fully either. More pandas, four year witch hunts against Dotcom & a referendum are obviously far more important that funding government services that this government was voted in for to run!

It cannot possibly be a flop as long as one person 'turns up'. I will, Key will, and no doubt a few others as is normal with postal voting.

[Sgt Pepper]

John Key in the Herald concerning Knighthoods

Prime Minister John Key says there is "not a dog's show" of New Zealand scrapping knights and dames from New Zealand's honours system

Why? Because he wants one

[Daytr]

Its all about him Sgt Pepper. The guy is an egomaniac. I've been reading recaps of the four year Dotcom trial, where Key used the GCSB as his private police to raid & spy on Dotcom illegally. He then changed the law post to make what he did legal! And that's not the only time he has done that. Dotcom is now charged with fraud to try & extradite him to the US, a charge that wont even be laid against him by US authorities. Hey but anything that works, no matter how dodgy. Translation of German Skype conversations used by the prosecution have also been doctored to make them appear far worse than they were. Next time you Skype, just remember under Key's PMship anyone might be listening in.

[craic]

The Herald lists the greatest threats against NZ today. They missed one - paranoia.

[fungus pudding]

Its all about him Sgt Pepper. The guy is an egomaniac. I've been reading recaps of the four year Dotcom trial, where Key used the GCSB as his private police to raid & spy on Dotcom illegally. He then changed the law post to make what he did legal! And that's not the only time he has done that. Dotcom is now charged with fraud to try & extradite him to the US, a charge that wont even be laid against him by US authorities. Hey but anything that works, no matter how dodgy. Translation of German Skype conversations used by the prosecution have also been doctored to make them appear far worse than they were. Next time you Skype, just remember under Key's PMship anyone might be listening in.

I don't know about anyone listening in, but I have it on good authority that the P.M. himself personally listens in to all Skype conversations and personally reads all emails, and also reads all posts on this site. Be very careful - you've been warned.

[westerly]

I don't know about anyone listening in, but I have it on good authority that the P.M. himself personally listens in to all Skype conversations and personally reads all emails, and also reads all posts on this site. Be very careful - you've been warned.

Don,t be silly. He is to busy arranging photo opportunities. It must have been a tough decision - Wellington and the royal visit or Auckland and the All Black parade.

westerly