18 May 2015

PM must come clean on link to gossip queen’s hit-job on “ponytail” waitress

John Key is refusing to rule out having spoken with gossip columnist Rachel Glucina, in the days before and after her front page hit job on the woman who complained about the Prime Minister pulling her hair, the Green Party says.

The Green Party asked a number of parliamentary questions of the Prime Minister about his, and his office’s contact with Ms Glucina personally, and with Ms Glucina’s PR company Pink PR on April 21, 22 and 23 this year.

“John Key confirmed he had not been in contact with Pink PR but refused to answer questions about his personal contact with Ms Glucina in those days, saying he didn’t disclose his conversations with the media,” Green Party Co- leader Metiria Turei said.

“My question is, did John Key help Ms Glucina stitch up the woman who complained that he’d pulled her hair? And the answer is, John Key won’t rule out he spoke with Glucina around the time of her hit job story.

“Rachel Glucina has boasted about her friendship with John Key, so it’s a legitimate question to ask what contact, if any John Key or his office had with the so-called “gossip queen” before she splashed Amanda Bailey’s identity all over the front page of the New Zealand Herald.

“I think most people would be very uncomfortable with the idea of the Prime Minister and the reigning gossip queen teaming up against a waitress who’d complained of harassment by the PM.

“John Key could easily rule out communicating with Glucina around the time of the story but he won’t, leaving the impression he may have been involved.

“John Key is hiding behind the ‘I don’t reveal my conversations with journalists line,’ but he has discussed his communications with people described as journalists before, such as attack blogger Cameron Slater, so that excuse doesn’t wash.

“I don’t think many people would consider either a gossip columnist or an attack blogger real journalists.

“The public of New Zealand deserve to know if John Key was involved in Ms Glucina’s hit job on Amanda Bailey and what information, if any, he provided the gossip columnist,” Mrs Turei said.

Metiria Turei asked the following questions of John Key:

What communication, if any, including, but not limited to, emails, phone calls, letters and text, has the Prime Minister had with the New Zealand Herald on 21, 22 and 23 April 2015?

What communication, if any, including, but not limited to, emails, phone calls, letters and text, has the Prime Minister’s office had with the New Zealand Herald on 21, 22 and 23 April 2015?

What communication, if any, including, but not limited to, emails, phone calls, letters and text, has the Prime Minister had with Rachel Glucina on 21, 22 and 23 April 2015?

What communication, if any, including, but not limited to, emails, phone calls, letters and text, has the Prime Minister’s office had with the Rachel Glucina on 21, 22 and 23 April 2015?

Answer Text: My office, in particular my media team, is in frequent contact with journalists from the New Zealand Herald, as well as those from Fairfax, TVNZ, TV3, RNZ, Radiolive, Newstalk ZB, etc. It would be unusual for a day to go by without contact as specified in the question. Contact over that time included calls, texts, emails as well as personal contact when members of my media team visited Press Gallery offices. It is not the practice of my media team nor myself to divulge details of the communications we have with journalists. This also answers questions 5177, 5180 and 5182.

And

What communication, if any, including, but not limited to, emails, phone calls, letters and text, has the Prime Minister had with Pink PR Ltd on 21, 22 and 23 April 2015?

What communication, if any, including, but not limited to, emails, phone calls, letters and text, has the Prime Minister’s office had with Pink PR Ltd on 21, 22 and 23 April 2015?

Answer Text: None.

ends

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