Key’s “sloppy” excuse on uranium shares

Written By: - Date published: 6:22 pm, February 16th, 2010 - 19 comments
Categories: john key - Tags:

John Key has tried to excuse himself from owning shares in a uranium company by saying he was “sloppy“. I’m afraid that’s not good enough for a Prime Minister worth millions, who likely pays top dollar for a lawyer to advise him on just these kind of problems.

“I was a bit sloppy” said Prime Minister John Key when it came to his uranium shares. But how can a man who forks out tens of thousands of dollars a year on legal advice be “sloppy”? He can’t be. He can only be wilfully ignorant.

The lawyer responsible for his share portfolio and family trust would’ve asked Mr Key “Are you sure you should be holding on to these shares Prime Minister?” to which we now know Mr Key’s obvious reply must’ve been “Yes”.

Remember. This is not an everyday mum and dad investor (as the Nats are so fond of saying) that we’re talking about.

Mr Key is a man worth more than $50m dollars. If the uranium shares, which have been persistently recorded in the Parliamentary pecuniary interest register, were somehow “missed”, then Key at the very least he needs a new lawyer.

I do wonder if Mr Key is still choosing to use the same lawyer who didn’t inform him about how many shares he had in Tranzrail? Oh that’s right, he simply lied about those.

19 comments on “Key’s “sloppy” excuse on uranium shares ”

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  1. Lanthanide 1
    16 February 2010 at 6:46 pm

    Please provide proof that Key has a lawyer look at all of the investments that he makes, otherwise all of this is entirely your own supposition.

    Of course, he *should* have such a lawyer, and if he doesn’t you can bag him on that.

    • Marty G 1.1
      16 February 2010 at 6:49 pm

      The trust lawyer.

    • zelda 1.2
      16 February 2010 at 7:41 pm

      The lawyer excuse was used in 2008 by John Key when he previously was recorded in different documents living in different houses at the same time.

      Hes never accountable for his actions and his weasel words makes Bill Clinton sound like Moses

  2. gitmo 2
    16 February 2010 at 6:53 pm

    For fucks sake have you got no better attack lines to use ?

    Please can someone find a better opposition to test this fucking government than this idle piffle.

    • Michael Foxglove 2.1
      16 February 2010 at 7:06 pm

      Gitmo. This is not an “attack line” as you suggest. It’s a serious issue – Key is trying to pull the wool over our eyes on an issue of personal trust. Don’t you think this is a topic worth traversing, especially in light of his deeply misleading reaction after being caught out on the Tranz Rail shares?

      • gitmo 2.1.1
        16 February 2010 at 7:12 pm

        No I think it’s a fucking waste of time and a distraction from where you should be going after the government as per Reddy below

        • Michael Foxglove 2.1.1.1
          16 February 2010 at 7:41 pm

          Your thoughts are noted. But I think, wrong. Being PM is about honesty as much as policy.

          • gitmo 2.1.1.1.1
            16 February 2010 at 7:53 pm

            No being PM is about being popular when the election comes around, expecting honesty from politicians is fantasy land stuff… remember that they have been voted a poor second to used car salesman by the NZ public in trustworthiness stakes for several decades now.

            • andy (the other one) 2.1.1.1.1.1
              16 February 2010 at 9:28 pm

              So Helen signing the painting was ok then, in your opinion?

              Key is not helping himself, this was an easy fix. Put it in the blind trust, plead ignorance. The narrative that is starting to form is that he is a little sloppy with all his arrangements personal and political, sloppy with policy execution, sloppy with support party arrangements. Basically he is sloppy on detail, unless its how much and when he bought the shares. Then his memory was fine.

              Please name a big policy this govt has launched that has gone smoothly and been well executed?

              Supercity = sloppy
              National strandards= sloppy
              tax cuts=failed
              cycle way = sloppy
              job summit = talk fest
              Whanau ora = who knows what it will end up like
              Gerry Brownlee = always sloppy (especially in running the house)
              Bill English housing rort = theft as a servant

      • Fisiani 2.1.2
        16 February 2010 at 9:03 pm

        This is a serious issue and is self evidently the main talking point tonight in every house in New Zealand and at every barbie and workplace. McGehan Close is up in arms. The coaliton of the willing is collapsing. Keep up this line of attack and hope for an electoral victory in the 22nd century.

  3. reddy 3
    16 February 2010 at 6:56 pm

    in reply to Key’s sexy jibe shutdown-

    ACC, Supercity, conservation land mining, tax cuts, GST-yes you’re right John when the New Zealand people think about getting screwed they do think about you!

  4. Armchair Critic 4
    16 February 2010 at 9:31 pm

    Saying “I was a bit sloppy” pales in comparison to the outright lie in the the preceding sentence in the transcript of question time today, where he says …”I have been busy running the country.” Busy? Running the country? Yeah, right.
    http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Business/QOA/9/e/8/49HansQ_20100216_00000012-12-Mining-in-Conservation-Areas-Prime-Minister.htm

  5. George.com 5
    16 February 2010 at 11:14 pm

    Has Key actually mislead Parliament on this one?

    When asked in Parliament why he hadn’t paid closer attention to his share portfolio, Key gave the reply that “small technical issue, I’ve been busy running the country”.

    That statement must come close to misleading Parliament.

    He is the PM in name, so from a position as figurehead he could argue that
    ‘he has been running the country’.

    From a sutstantive position however, his claim in untenable. Surely photo opportunities, overseas holidays and doing little in no ways counts as ‘running the country’.

    • BLiP 5.1
      17 February 2010 at 1:24 am

      One also has to wonder: if he can’t run his own affairs, is he in fact capable of running the country?

      • felix 5.1.1
        17 February 2010 at 1:31 am

        I just wonder if anyone’s going to make him answer the awkward questions about it. The “meerkats” have been getting restless lately but are they hungry yet?

    • sk 5.2
      17 February 2010 at 7:48 am

      What he meant to say was “small technical issue, I’ve been busy running the country into the ground”

  6. Camden Whelk 6
    17 February 2010 at 12:38 pm

    Forget about whether ‘sloppy’ is a poor excuse for a prime minister! We are supposed to accept ‘sloppy’ as an acceptable excuse from someone who worked as an investment banker! Not a good look! The smiling assassin is showing himself to be incompetent.

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