A Cabinet meeting on Monday was billed as being economically focused.
Mr Key had been stung by criticism that he and his top team had wasted precious days on holiday when they should have been in Wellington slaving away over a hot economy.
The economy is hot not because it is bubbling away as it did for eight of the past nine years but because, at times, it seems to be in free-fall, burning up as it prepares to crash.
Mr Key was uncharacteristically vague at a post-Cabinet press conference when asked about the plans for the economy.
He stuck to the previously announced timetable of a February 4 announcement on help to small and medium-sized businesses, and a February 27 jobs summit, in Auckland.
An announcement on infrastructure spending would be made sometime in February, probably between the two other announcements.
The general impression in Wellington is that Finance Minister Bill English is the "go-to guy" for Mr Key.
There is no question about Mr English's grasp of policy and he holds the two portfolios vital to the success of National's plans to beat the recession - finance and infrastructure.
There has been some help already for the Government as it works out its plans. But there are also some worrying trends.
Petrol prices eased late last year but now seem to be on the way back up. Interest rates might have fallen and house affordability might have improved but for many, owning a first home seems an impossible dream.
Retail banks have tightened up their lending criteria and the 20% deposit could be out of reach for many without family help.
Food prices continued to rise in the December quarter and although prices were predicted to fall as commodity prices around the world eased, dairy company Fonterra quickly increased its prices.
It is almost as though the conspiracy theory is coming true for New Zealand households.
Reports around the country of local government rate rises around double the current rate of inflation do not help confidence.
Inflation is forecast to fall to below 1% by mid-year and zero by September.
If households, businesses and government departments are being asked to tighten their belts, why not local government?
That was a good question, Mr English said.
Central government departments were being told that, for the next three or four years, there would be no new money for schemes other than those promises made during the election campaign by National.
Schemes that would be "nice to have" were being cancelled and the Government intended sorting out the public service so it could do what it was meant to do - provide core public services.
The rules for his first budget this year had been set out clearly. There would be no new bids and ministers knocking on his door asking for money would be told "no".
Businesses and households were learning how to live leaner, reducing debt and cutting costs.
"Local government runs the risk of strong criticism from ratepayers who are tightening their belts if it doesn't do the same."
Mr English said he and the rest of the economic ministers were hard at work bringing different perspectives to the problems the country faced.
The ministers were a group of people who were in touch with businesses and their communities and they knew how the recession was affecting those groups.
The job summit was a demonstration the Government intended to be inclusive of a range of views.
"We are in touch and engaged with businesses and social organisations in a way that will lead to decisions. There will be no token consultation of people as there has been in the past. There is no time for that and people get sick of it."
The economic conditions required urgency from the Government. It was making the decisions and creating momentum, he said.
Last week, Mr English was given another Treasury update.
In the week before Christmas, Mr English believed the Treasury's worst case scenario figures had already been reached. Treasury said in December that real growth was expected to be weak in the year to March 2009 and 2010.
Growth was expected to recover during 2010.
Weak trading partner growth was the key driver but positive growth of 1.2% was still expected. Unemployment was expected to peak around 6.5%.
The latest Treasury outlook says the downside scenario presented in December was likely; with further downside risk.
International financial markets were showing some signs of greater stability. New Zealand financing needs were high and the Treasury expected demand from the market but that prices would be higher.
The Treasury was not seeing signs of a credit crunch and much depended on banks' abilities to access wholesale funds. Mr English said people were realistic and knew the Government could not roll back a worldwide recession.
"But if we can get our economy in shape, we can protect people from the worst impacts and get ours in shape to grow."
His long-term view was the Government needed to make changes now to grow the economy out of the recession.
A growing economy would replace the jobs lost and would also bring the New Zealand economy closer to that of Australia.
Some events had already taken place to help people, he said. That included dropping interest rates and a fall in oil prices.
The biggest help so far had been the October 1 tax cuts, which would be followed by significant cuts on April 1, Mr English said.
"When you add up those measures, our stimulus package is the largest in the world."
The Government was borrowing large amounts of money to help grow the economy, and spending had begun.
New Zealand was helped by falling into recession before the rest of the world.
The UK and US were developing stimulus packages now but they had fallen into recession more recently and more abruptly than New Zealand.
The infrastructure spending work needed to lead to productivity because the money spent on infrastructure eventually needed to be paid back, he said.
Mr English, as Infrastructure Minister, was considering projects that could be started sooner rather than later. That applied particularly to smaller projects as large ones had long lead-in times.
The spending would be on housing, education, roads and a few other areas.
Within the next six months, the Government would also be working with local governments on infrastructure projects.
While roading schemes would be predominantly in the north of the North Island, other projects would be spread around the country.
Job creation was high on Mr English's priority list, and while in the past the public service had created the jobs, positions originated by the private sector were most important.
The Government needed to instil confidence in the business sector so it retained the jobs already there and invested for new ones.
As New Zealand came out of the recession, the Government would encourage businesses to start investing again to replace lost jobs.
"It is important to see the opportunities in this time to shake the country loose from the last nine years. This is time for considered judgement rather than jumping to conclusions.
"It is not about the news next week. This is a three to five-year programme to recover and start repaying the debt the Government has built up.
"New Zealanders don't get paralysed by an economic downturn as they did 25 years ago. They remain optimistic and have the ability to make the most of it. They do what needs to be done."
Keeping positive
A positivr attitude is crucial to the recovery of New Zealand from the recession, Finance Minister Bill English says.
"We have been through some tough times in the South in the late 1980s and early 1990s. People learnt to be resilient. New Zealanders roll up their sleeves and do what needs to be done.
"They don't need lectures and they don't need to be told what to do."
At the end of six months, National's tax cuts would have come into force and the infrastructure programme would be under way.
Mr English said he would present a budget that dropped the pointless spending of the last government and implemented better and smarter public services.
In six months, people on low fixed incomes superannuitants and beneficiaries would realise that, despite the recession, their incomes had been maintained, he said.
