Just Ask the Question John
David Shearer
Labour Leader
01 May 2012
MEDIA STATEMENT
Just Ask the Question
John
John Key should follow the quite
useful advice that he’s doled out to previous Prime
Ministers that they should stand down a minister because of
alleged unethical behaviour, says Labour Leader David
Shearer.
“It seems Split Enz may have in fact got
it wrong and in John Key’s case history does in fact
repeat. Three years ago, he urged Helen Clark to ask her
minister Winston Peters some ‘plain questions’ and to
‘stand him down’ until he provided her with answers.
“Yet today he’s refusing to do exactly that in
the case of John Banks. There’s a word for that, it starts
with H and I can’t use it in
Parliament.
“Let’s take a look at some of the
contradictions from John Key.
“He once said:
‘The issue has never been one of legality as much as
ethics. The criminal code is the bare minimum standard for
society. For MPs we expect behaviour well beyond
that’.
“He now says: ‘There is quite a
wide definition of ethics…the test I have to apply is the
law’.
“He once said ‘it is no longer
acceptable or credible for Helen Clark to assert a façade
of confidence in her Foreign Affairs Minister and to fail to
ask the plain questions of him that she has a duty to the
public to ask.
He now says: ‘That’s not my
responsibility [to ask the questions]. If somebody thinks
John Banks isn’t telling the truth, there’s a very
simple remedy, they go to the police. That’s not my job to
do a forensic examination.
“He once said:
“Helen Clark must stand Mr Peters down as a Minister.
That is what I would do if I were Prime
Minister.
“He now says: “Well, why would he
[stand down]. I mean unless he’s misleading me, if he’s
misleading me, that’s a different story, you know,
ministers from time to time mislead Prime Ministers, they
always get the boot, don’t they but that’s not what I
think is going to happen here.”
“He once said:
Unless he [Winston Peters] can provide a credible
explanation about this serious issue, he should be
unacceptable to Helen Clark as a Minister in her Labour-led
Government.
“He now says: “No [I
haven’t asked whether he knew Dotcom made the donation]
and the reason for that…umm…it’s probably worth
clarifying that my office asked him the question. But the
point that’s probably worth clarifying there is that
that’s not my responsibility”
“My advice to
John Key is to book in another cup of tea with John Banks
and just ask him the question,” said David Shearer.
ENDS