That's John Key's response to the discovery that his blind trust isn't as blind as he says it is. Apparently the opposition is "making it up" as part of a smear campaign.
Except they're not. You can check the contents of Key's "blind" trust on the web at the Companies Office (The Standard has them all here in one place if you can't be arsed doing the searches yourself). And so, therefore, can John Key.
There is no proof that Key ever did, of course, and unless he is very very foolish I doubt there ever will be. But there doesn't need to be. The mere fact that it is possible shows that Key's claims about his trust's blindness are false, and that he has misled both Parliament and the public. Furthermore, the fact that the trust arrangement seems designed to enable this - to produce a trust that is blind to the public but not to him, suggests that this was the point all along.
Our politicians must be above reproach. They are responsible for ensuring that "no conflict exists or appears to exist between their personal interests and their public duty". John Key has failed that test. He has behaved in a manner which suggests he intended simply to give himself plausible deniability about conflicts, while ensuring they would still exist. I have no tolerance for politicians who behave in such a corrupt and self-serving fashion. Do you?
