Labour Catches Key With Shares Shocker
September 25th, 2008
National Party leader John Key didn’t have to wait long for the campaign to take a nasty turn. Labour dredged up records proving his family trust once held 100,000 Tranz Rail shares, not the 30,000 he acknowledged earlier this year when he was accused of conflict of interest because he had been asking Parliamentary questions about the railways. Key said he sold the shares in June 2003 when he realised there was a political issue, but he struggled this week to explain why he hadn’t revealed the full extent of the shareholding.
Labour gave TV One the story and the network ambushed Key on the campaign trail. It didn’t lood good as Key at first said he had held between 25,000 and 50,000 shares and then admitted twice as many when he was challenged. Key says far from gaining anything through his position as an MP he actually lost money when he sold the shares. But he had to acknowledge he was wrong not to disclose all the shares when the issue was first raised, and fumbled his way through media interviews on Tuesday. He was savaged in Parliament by Helen Clark while Finance Minister Michael Cullen, in charge of the operation, issued a stream of statements and transcripts. And he wasn’t mincing words. “Key keeps lying – when will it end?” was one of his latest headlines.
The disclosure of Key’s transactions in Tranz Rail shares ended up neutralising what should have been a winning week for National, but it is counting on negligible poll impact. With the cessation of Parliament and the theatre of question time, National is now seeking to draw debate back to a pattern of issues important to voters – law and order, education, health, followed by tax. It will probably be a couple of weeks before National rolls out is tax policy.
Copyright © Trans Tasman Media Ltd
Duncan Cotterill