Key has, with a minimum of fuss since being elected in 2008, raised the GST and cut income taxes, put Christchurch back on the road to recovery after a major earthquake, overseen the introduction of same-sex marriage and set New Zealand the ambitious target of a 50 per cent reduction in emissions over the next 50 years.
Obviously the first is a success if you're a rich right-winger who wants to redistribute wealth upwards - and Key certainly is. But the rest? Christchurch won't be "recovering" any time soon, same-sex marriage was introduced and championed by a Labour backbencher, and Key's climate target is hardly ambitious and he's not doing anything to meet it anyway. I know they were looking for contrasts with Abbott, but to New Zealanders, this reads more like a list of Key's failures.
But I guess this is what happens when you have "political correspondent"s desperate for an angle but too pressed for time to do the research...