Club President Tom Hendriks and his partner Jessica organised a luncheon with Prime Minister John Key as the guest speaker. The luncheon was a great success. In all, 181 people attended, what was really our club’s meeting for last week, but shifted from Thursday evening to Friday mid-day. Simon Dallow, who holds a long friendship with President Tom and his family, opened and chaired the early parts of the meeting and introduced Prime Minister John Key. Simon made some interesting comments, including his opinion, that the country as a whole, is currently in a fairly positive frame of mind. Prime Minister Key, with his relaxed, yet knowledgeable take on the economy and other issues faced by the Government, had no problem holding the attention of those present. The Prime Minister addressed a range of topics which, as to be expected covered, general taxation along with some personal experience examples. One of which related to the complexities that are involved, when one talks of relaxing GST on food. Whilst our recent downgrade may have some impacts, the PM was quick to note how well our trading partnerships with China and Australia are shielding the country from problems in other parts of the globe. On a lighter note, Prime Minister Key mentioned having to decline a personal invite from Australian PM Julia Gillard, to attend the following Sunday’s Warriors versus Manly Sea Eagles as he had already taken up an offer to attend the game with the Mad Butcher.
Just prior to closing the meeting, President Tom adopted his auctioneer stance and raised $350.00 for a flag signed by our Prime Minister. Unfortunately, not all of our members were able to attend, but those that did certainly enjoyed a most relaxed, interesting and informative meeting.
Report from Bill Horne
