In terms of who actually has actually achieved something (and there have been lots who have nothing to show)- you would have to say Nick Smith, Power, Bennett, Groser and Ryall have done the most.

What have Joyce, Brownlee and English achieved so far? Not much in my view- maybe SJ is working on the Broadband plan but considering it was almost the major election plank of the governement not much has been seen. As far as transport- the regions seem very unhappy whilst the holiday highway is a potential $2.3Bill millstone being created for the govt.
English can claim credit for the recession receding but as far as economic reform errr what reform??
Similarly with government supported economic development government activity seems to be minmal or absent.
The RWC ministers (McCully and Brownlee) must be another worry for Key- now that we are staring at a $40mill loss.

Its ironical that its the most experienced ministers who are causing the most trouble.

Is it realistic for John Key to make his own list such as this every 6/9/12 months and then move the bottom 20-25% of performers down a groups in rankings and replace them with lower ranked but better performing people.

I guess this happens to an extent already but it would be interesting to see what it would look like as a policy. I would avoid the problem the last government had of the same team year after year.

“In the circumstances Paula has scored exceptionally well.”

You mean considering National has failed to deliver on any of its 11-page welfare manifesto ?

Obviously the rankings are based on who can act most like a quivering eunuch in the face of the self-interested jabbering of auto-fellating policy mandarins.

Tim Groser – Negotiating is in his blood and is a skill needed in a well rounded Cabinet. If after the last election, the Maori Party was in a ‘kingmaking’ role, Tim would have been a vital (I was going to use the k word, but too much of a pun) member of the negotiating team.

[DPF: They say he has been a bit low profile and too focused on the deals and not enough on the big picture - ie acting as a negotiator, not as a Minister]

All you have to do as a politician is to say that ignoring the Sun while claiming CO2 is the only factor in climate change, is not credible and you intend to fund research that addresses that imbalance. Meanwhile, you won’t be joining the religion.

Furthermore you could point out that proposing a tax on CO2 is the equivalent of claiming that human beings are a disease on the planet and you don’t intend to buy into that philosophy.

Furthermore you could also say that excluding developing countries from that tax is blatant wealth transfer and you don’t intend to subsidise China and India – they can build their own nations.

Of course this would enrage the globalists who are heavily pushing this religion because it helps them achieve their ends but this stance would get tremendous domestic support apart from amongst the climate change religious nutbars and who cares about them. Nick won’t do this of course, but he could and if he did, that’s his climate change solved.

I too however think Power is a bit high. He’s been a little populist, rather than fully considering some issues (I’m not just talking about provocation btw), and some of his comments have showed a lack of knowledge/research/understanding. I would have given him about a 7.5-8.0, still good overall, but not the 2nd best…

“I agree they have all handled their areas very well, even though of course I may disagree with some of the policy decisions”

I would have thought their policy decisions were a critical part of their performance in the same way that any CEO’s strategic decisions are a critical part.

That’s why I can’t agree with Power’s rating: e.g. attempting to remove provocation marks him IMO as a knee-jerk populist and failing to advance processes to deal with Ellis’ clearly unsafe conviction marks him IMO as a weak unprincipled dumbo.

I’m also surprised about Smith’s 6.5. I mean, gaining enough support BEFORE you introduce a bill is apparently a pretty good idea when you’re a politician. I woulda thought Nick woulda known that.