John Key’s challenge to Chris Luxon: Get those pandas from China - Beehive Diaries

Former Prime Minister Sir John Key looks at pandas in Chengdu on a trip to China in November 2023. Photo / John Key

Key puts pandas on Luxon’s to do list

On the list of dreams Sir John Key failed to deliver in his time as Prime Minister was his 2010 wish to try to secure pandas under China’s panda exchange programme for a New Zealand zoo. His enthusiasm for the costly promise waxed and waned over the years, as he came up with various New Zealand wildlife the pandas could be swapped for, but he never gave up.

Key clearly has still not given up. During his trip to China this week, Key sent Beehive Diaries a photo of himself in Chengdu looking at pandas with the message: “Still working on the pandas. Never give up, I say!!!!”

Asked if he was lobbying Luxon to deliver his panda legacy, Key said it had been mentioned in dispatches. He had sent the same photo to Luxon.

“I told him I expected him to follow on from where I had failed and prove himself to be a more effective leader,” Key said.

“[While in Chengdu], at one point, it was suggested – and I kid you not – that I might be allowed to take two to New Zealand. At which point I did try to point out to them that when I had some authority I couldn’t get them to New Zealand, so I was doubtful that would be the case now.

“So I hope the new Prime Minister will share my love of these furry creatures and seek to have two in New Zealand, as a tangible sign of the relationship.”

In 2014, John Key's wife Bronagh got to cuddle 3-month-old Xing Yu at the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Centre in western China - but Key missed out.

What better time than just ahead of the Apec summit, where Luxon is likely to talk to China’s Premier Xi Jinping at some point, in the event Luxon can get there.

Key laughed when it was suggested Luxon would be too busy with his own equally difficult mission of trying to get a free trade agreement with India: another thing Key tried and gave up on. “Well, you never know. He’s quite confident there,” Key said.

Luxon’s response:

Luxon made it clear it was unlikely to be added to his 100-day plan. However, he did say his first and only soft toy as a child was a panda. “I thank my friend and our former PM for his wise counsel, but despite my childhood love of pandas it’s highly unlikely to be one of the first things I’ll raise with the Chinese President in any future meetings.”

NZ’s travelling Odd Couple

While we wait for a new Government to be hammered out, Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni travelled to the Pacific Islands Forum as the official (caretaker) government representative for New Zealand, with National’s foreign affairs spokesman (and ex foreign minister) Gerry Brownlee in tow for the incoming government. Sepuloni even gave them a wee nickname: “Caramel Brownie.”

National MP Gerry Brownlee, Cook Island Prime Minister Mark Brown and New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni. Photo / Supplied

Dan Rosewarne and the red light of doom

Poor ex-Labour MP Dan Rosewarne got mocked in some quarters for what Beehive Diaries thought was quite a funny way of describing the feeling of going from being an MP to an ex-MP. Rosewarne did not make it in on Labour’s list, and said it sank in when he went to the Air NZ lounge and got the “red light of doom” as his entry was denied. Rosewarne assumed his access to the staple Koru diet of club sandwiches, chickpea casserole and cheese and pretzels had ended the moment he missed out on getting back in.

The NZ Herald did some checks and discovered Rosewarne’s Koru membership lives on. It was suspected there had simply been a typo in his membership number on that booking. Get back in there, Rosewarne: the green light of glory awaits.