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It's easy to say "oh it was inevitable" years afterwards. Of our English-speaking OECD peers only Canada legislated for same-sex marriage before NZ. The UK, after us; the USA, after us; Australia still hasn't.
Can you think of any "right wing" leader in the world whose party has done anything remotely comparable with the Ngāi Tūhoe settlement which removed Te Urewera from the National Parks Act? with restoring the right of Māori to seek customary title through the courts?
Would a "right wing" leader go on a Keynsian public-works spending spree funded by public debt (roads, Chch, etc) as Key has done? Would a "right wing" leader publicly lend his name and support to a campaign to discard our colonial flag in favour of a unique flag that reflected our identity?
Would a "right wing" leader not only retain the social policies of the left government he replaced (e.g. Working for Families) but increase benefit spending?
Summary: a centrist with leftie tendencies. Anyone who argues for Key as a right-wing ideologue is fucking blinded by their own dogma. He's rich, and took control of the National Party, so he must be right-wing.
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