Looks like Key’s backdown and payout to Bradley Ambrose over the “teapot tapes” is going to run for a while in the media. This TVNZ piece is a typical summary: John Key paying for teapot tape saga out of taxpayer’s pocket. See also: Why John Key’s backdown on the teapot tapes is a bigger deal than you think. Graeme Edgeler asks: The Teapot Moan Scandal Ends; or Who will Broadcast the Teapot Tape?
Key is obviously on the back foot, his lines are the last refuge of the cornered rat. He doesn’t want to “get into the rights and wrongs” of whether the taxpayer should pay for his settlement. Yeah I bet he doesn’t. It’s “within the rules” he says. Andrea Vance disagrees: “Speaker’s rules show definitively that leaders fund can’t be used for damages or payments used to settle legal action”. Graeme Edgeler isn’t sure. John Drinnan asks: “The police e prosecution. The media raids, The court prosecution. The payout. How much has obsession with Teapot-Tape cost taxpayers?”. Good question.
As is often the case, Winston Peters gets to the nub of the matter. Key was at the teapot meeting with his Leader of National hat on. He’s paying for the legal consequences of his own personal mistakes and obsessions with money that comes to his PM’s hat. Clearly Key is keen on distinguishing between his various hats when he’s trying to dodge responsibility, and just as keen on ignoring the differences if it lets him dip into public money.
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