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Originally Posted by Ab
The point is, a right-wing leader would have cancelled that shit outright.
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I guess I think that the context is important. You're talking right/left in some sort of absolute terms, rather than in the relative terms of the New Zealand context. In the New Zealand context, I think even the most right wing politicians we have (ACT?) probably realise that, as you say, cancelling that shit outright, would be political suicide, and hence wouldn't do it. Thus, I think that, because of the context, you're applying an unreasonable standard in order to make the claim that Key has 'leftie tendencies' seem reasonable.
Additionally, I think that it's important to realise that the political environment in which Key increased benefit payments by less than inflation is a political environment in which wealth inequality has been becoming an increasingly important political issue. It's not an issue that any politician wanting to maintain a semblance of popularity can afford to completely ignore at the moment. Thus, arguably, we might reasonably believe that Key acted to raise benefit payments out of a sense political self-preservation much more than any belief that it was the right thing to do. The fact that he did it really tells us very little about what he would have actually wanted to do.