Hey Tuff, here's what I know about the PM...
John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is the
38th Prime Minister of
New Zealand, in office since 2008. He has led the
New Zealand National Party since 2006.
Born in
Auckland before moving to
Christchurch when he was a child, Key attended the
University of Canterbury and graduated in 1981 with a
bachelor of commerce, also later undertaking management studies at
Harvard University in
Boston. 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. He has held the seat since then. 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 in both the
November 2008 and the
November 2011 general elections.
As
Prime Minister, Key leads the
Fifth National Government of New Zealand which entered government at the beginning of the
late-2000s recession in 2008. In his first term, Key's government implemented a
GST rise, personal tax cuts and a raise in the minimum wage. In February 2011, a
major earthquake in Christchurch, the nation's second largest city, significantly impacted the national economy and the government formed the
Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority in response. In its second term, Key's government announced a policy of partial
privatisation of
state-owned assets. In foreign policy, Key announced the withdrawal of
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 Strategic Economic Partnership.
