The Economist recently held an interview with John Key on the topic of New Zealand’s economy : Changing Patterns of Behaviour

“As an election nears, New Zealand’s prime minister advocates austerity measures to control the national debt and bolster the economy”

You can watch the tea drinking PM’s interview here on The Economist’s site.

Note Key’s body language and clenched fists at the start of the interview.

If you’re interested why not check-out another article on The Economist from March of  last year: It’s not easy seeming green. A backlash to New Zealand’s vow of purity, particularly salient after the drubbing Stephen Sackur gave the PM on the country’s 100% Pure advertising image

…When tackled on these claims by an Australian reporter, New Zealand’s normally amiable prime minister John Key angrily dismissed them as “bollocks”, pointing to his country’s efforts to tackle its emissions by energetically planting trees that would re-absorb them. But local papers took up the theme. “New Zealand: 100 per cent pure hype” trumpeted the New Zealand Herald. “We are clean and green, but only relatively speaking and by accident rather than conscious effort.” The ruggedness of much of New Zealand’s terrain may have protected its film-friendly uplands, but at lower elevations farming has stripped away forests, eroded hills and clogged rivers with silt and fertiliser run-off…