The Key biography: selected extracts

On resigning as Prime Minister: Key: “On a decision tree basis, the decision made itself. It was by far the hardest decision I’ve ever made because I was giving up something that intrinsically I didn’t want to give up but I knew I had to do it. It was the right thing to do.” On NZ First leader Winston Peters and the 2017 election: Key thinks NZ First will do better at the 2017 election, but believes it will be at Labour’s expense. National, he believes, will stay roughly where it is. And if Peters is pivotal? Key: “I think Winston will go with the biggest party. Fundamentally, he is an old-fashioned conservative. I think he’d have come with us in 2014 if he had polled enough.” On the decision to deploy troops: Key: “It is one only the Prime Minister can make. You don’t go to Cabinet and say, ‘I’m thinking of doing this’. You say, ‘I’m doing this’. And the reason for that is you have to own the decision. Real people’s lives are at stake and you know almost certainly you will lose people. “We lost people in Afghanistan and I’d met the families and gone through that. “I’ll never forget the first time we sent the SAS back to Kabul. We had a farewell for them. It was a Friday night, we had drinks and they were leaving over the weekend. One of the mothers came up to me and said ‘I just hope you know what you are doing’.” On Max: When told of his father’s decision, he took some time to understand it. “Why don’t you just run for a fourth term?” he said. “You’re going to win.” “I think we can win too,” his father replied. “That’s why I’m doing this. I need to transition while we’re on top. The party can stay in power longer if I go and it’s better to go rather than stay until they want you to go.” “Okay,” Max conceded, but he wasn’t convinced. He came back to the subject a couple of times over the next week, saying to his father, “Are you sure? Why don’t you stay?” Key’s mind went back 10 years to the Sunday afternoon near the end of 2006 when he and English had settled the question of which of them would succeed Don Brash as party leader. Afterwards in the spa, Key had told his son, “I’m flying to Wellington tonight and tomorrow there’s an election for the head of the party and I’ll almost certainly win. If I do and we win the election in two years I’ll be Prime Minister.” Key will never forget the look on the 11-year-old’s face. “You reckon you’ll ever come home?” Max asked. “Yeah. I’ll come home, mate,” Key assured him.