No ordinary Sunday as PM clears decks

John Key is leaving on top; not just professionally but personally.

It is the end of an era, with John Key leaving the ninth floor of the Beehive after eight years and handing the keys of office to deputy Bill English.

English and his deputy will be elected unopposed at a National caucus meeting starting at 11am today.

The new prime minister is then expected to outline his next steps at a media conference. Key will then head to Government House to tender his resignation to Governorgeneral Dame Patsy Reddy.

English and Paula Bennett will then go to Government House mid-afternoon for their formal swearing-in.

Key, English and Bennett were at Parliament yesterday clearing out their offices and preparing a strategy for today.

English, who has already confirmed Steven Joyce as his finance minister, is expected soon to announce other key portfolios.

Transport Minister Simon Bridges, who unsuccessfully sought the deputy’s job, is favourite to take Joyce’s economic development role. English’s main rival for the leadership, Jonathan Coleman, is also tipped for promotion and may eventually take the foreign affairs role when Murray Mccully leaves.

A push by some ambitious backbenchers for ‘‘generational change’’ is likely to see some promotions to Cabinet and the party will also elect its whips.

Some, including Coleman and fellow leadership aspirant Judith Collins, also called for an end to tax cut plans in favour of greater spending on social programmes and law and order.

But Joyce yesterday said that while there would be a stocktake of all policies, most would remain and tax cuts would be part of the mix alongside infrastructure, debt reduction and social spending.

Meanwhile, yesterday in Key’s office books and papers piled up in the bank of wheelie bins beside his desk.

It was his last Sunday spent working on the 9th floor of the Beehive. For most of the past eight years, being there on a Sunday has meant other things - earthquakes, scandal, crisis, tragedy.

This time he was clearing his desk and packing away the mementos. Photographs of Key and American President Barack Obama, one of him and his Conservative Party mates Tony Abbott and David Cameron (taken at Nelson Mandela’s funeral), framed rugby shirts, and nuts - boxes and boxes of them. (Key’s other go-to-snack when he’s stuck working late in the office is a can of baked beans).

A practice golf putter was yet to be packed away - or maybe Key is giving it to his successor to help him destress when things get tough.

By this afternoon, the transition of power will be complete.

Key is leaving on top; not just professionally but personally. It matters to him that he gets to leave while Kiwis still feel like his friends. He’s never wanted to cling on till voters turn against him.

It happened to his predecessor, Helen Clark, and to former Australian prime minister John Howard, who clung on so long he even lost his own seat in Parliament.

Key prides himself on his sense of timing. It made him rich as a money trader and when he left that job people were mystified as well. He was at the top of his game heading Merrill Lynch in New York.

He arrived back in New Zealand as National was in turmoil and a plum seat was up for grabs. Timing, as the saying goes, is everything. NZ