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In February 2016, Key reached an agreement with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to grant New Zealanders living in Australia a pathway to citizenship if they were earning five times over the average wage.
- Overview
- Early life and career
- Prime ministership
John Key, (born August 9, 1961, Auckland, New Zealand), New Zealand business executive and politician who was leader of the New Zealand National Party (2006–16) and prime minister of New Zealand (2008–16).
Key was the son of an English father and a Jewish mother, who fled Austria for the United Kingdom in 1939. The couple married in 1948 and immigrated to New Zealand, eventually settling in Auckland. When Key’s father died in 1969, the family moved to Christchurch, where they lived in a state rental house and Key’s mother worked as a night porter and cleaner to repay accumulated debt. Key did well at Burnside High School, where he excelled in public speaking, debating, and economics. He later studied accounting at the University of Canterbury, from which he graduated with a degree in commerce in 1983, the year before his marriage to fellow student Bronough Irene Dougan.
After Prime Minister David Lange’s 1984–87 Labour government loosened exchange controls on the New Zealand dollar, Key quit his job with a sportswear clothing manufacturer and took a position as a foreign currency trader in Wellington for Australia-based Elders Merchant Finance. In 1988 he was lured to the newly established Bankers Trust in Auckland. Beginning in 1995, Key worked in Singapore, London, and Sydney for American investment bankers Merrill Lynch, assuming responsibility for various business units, notably international foreign-exchange and European bond and derivative trading. He developed a reputation as a smart risk taker, and in 1999 he joined the foreign-exchange committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He also took management studies courses at Harvard University.
Key steered the country through tough times in response to the global economic downturn that began shortly after he took office and as New Zealanders faced tragedy and loss brought about by the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010–11. In the process, he earned a second term as prime minister when the National Party won a historic victory in the general election in November 2011, capturing 48 percent of the vote (the highest total for any party since mixed-member proportional representation was introduced in 1996) and 60 seats in the House of Representatives (Parliament).
Much time and treasure was spent on earthquake recovery efforts, which Key, in 2013, called “the largest economic undertaking in New Zealand’s history,” equivalent to almost 20 percent of the country’s annual GDP. Earthquakes and aftershocks of up to 6.6 magnitude again buffeted the country in 2013, this time beneath Cook Strait, but caused only superficial damage in Wellington, though several dwellings were destroyed in the small South Island community of Seddon.
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Under the direction of Key and Finance Minister Bill English, New Zealand experienced a robust economic recovery from the international financial crisis of 2008–09, and by 2014 it had become one of the first developed countries to return to normal performance after the global crisis. Largely as a result of that success, in the 2014 general election the National Party won 60 seats in the House of Representatives under the mixed member proportional electoral system, returning Key for a third term as prime minister after support for the government was won from the Maori Party (2 seats) and ACT New Zealand and United Future (1 each). The victory of the National Party came despite the political fallout that it had experienced over the handling of the attempted extradition by the U.S. of German-born Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom—a permanent resident in New Zealand since November 2010—on charges of copyright infringement in relation to his Megaupload Web site. The case had been delayed by a government investigation into allegations that New Zealand security services had unlawfully spied on Dotcom.
Meanwhile, Key and his family visited Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle in September 2013. Later that month, in an address to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, Key urged the reform of various UN bodies, including the Security Council, which he said were “hostage to their own traditions and to the interests of the most powerful” and damaging to the reputation and credibility of the UN itself. In November 2014 Key hosted state visits to New Zealand by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese Pres. Xi Jinping.
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Dec 6, 2016 · Mr Key's legacy is sweetest for property owners, who saw the values of their homes rise $NZ400 billion to almost $NZ1 trillion on his watch. Meanwhile, the cost of servicing their mortgages as a percentage of disposable incomes fell almost 40 percent.
Dec 5, 2016 · John Key, who has announced his resignation as prime minister of New Zealand, made a fortune as a currency trader before returning home to pursue his political ambitions.
Key remained popular with voters and won a third term in the September 2014 election. One of his campaign promises was to hold a national referendum on choosing a new national flag versus retaining the old one.
Dec 5, 2016 · Mr Key left a successful career as an investment banker overseas, including with US firm Merrill Lynch, to return to New Zealand because he wanted to get into politics. He stood for Parliament for the National Party in 2002 and won the Auckland electorate of Helensville - a seat he has held since.
Dec 7, 2016 · Key is known as someone smart – and competent – enough to make a pile of cash. It’s no coincidence that this “good with money” story has found such great traction and continues to propel...
