Key to ask Oravida again to stop using his image

Prime Minister John Key says his office will write again to Oravida asking it to stop using his photo in its promotional material.

• An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that David Wong-Tung was a director of Oravida. He is, in fact, a director of Oravida NZ Ltd and had no cause to be aware of the product promotion in China, or any responsibility for it. We apologise to Mr Wong-Tung.

Prime Minister John Key says his office will write again to Oravida asking it to stop using his photo in its promotional material.

He told reporters that the company was in breach of the Cabinet Manual by using his image in material at a seafood show in China, months after using MP Judith Collins' photo in another product endorsement.

He said many other companies also used his image without permission, and his office wrote to all of them asking them to stop.

"The Cabinet Manual is quite clear about my image being used to promote a particular product. We make it clear to companies that they can't do that," he said.

"There are lots of companies that have me just standing against their banner or in their workplace, whatever it might be. That's totally normal.

"But if they are actually using that as part of their advertising, that is against the rules and we make it clear to them."

Accounts for the three months to September, released yesterday, showed the Government was still spending $725 million more than it earned in the first quarter of the June financial year - $79 million worse than forecast.

Mr Key told reporters that the Government faced "plenty of challenges". Tax revenue was running generally below forecasts partly because of lower dairy prices, inflation was below forecasts which also hit tax revenue, and financial returns on some assets were below expectations.

He admitted he was less confident of achieving the surplus than he had been before the September 20 election.

"The question is how close is it, and if it's really close, what could we do to make sure we get there," he said.

"I don't think we should go and panic about it. We want to get to surplus, but I don't think we should make a knee-jerk reaction. We are on the right trajectory, we have been massively slashing those deficits.

"So in my preferred world, we'll get there in 2014-15. If we don't it will be a year later."