Key turning blind eye to claims of dodgy donation declaration

The fact John Key won’t ask John Banks whether he knew a $50,000 donation came from Kim Dotcom shows he’s prepared to turn a blind eye to a potential breach of electoral law to protect his political ally, says Labour Leader David Shearer.

“John Key says it’s not his job to conduct a forensic examination of John Banks’ political donations. Fair enough. The police can do that. But the Prime Minister should just ask his Minister a very simple question – did he know that the donation to his mayoral campaign came from Kim Dotcom?

“John Key claims he still has confidence in John Banks and accepts his word that he has done nothing wrong. That’s easy to do when you’re not asking the right question. It’s a case of see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

“The Prime Minister has a responsibility to ensure that his Ministers are behaving appropriately and within the law. There are now serious concerns about John Banks’ actions relating to several donations. That should be more than enough to warrant standing him down from his ministerial portfolios until an investigation can be carried out.

“It’s not good enough for John Key to shrug off calls for scrutiny of John Banks’s behaviour simply because he’s worried about losing his political partner. He has a duty to New Zealanders to demand answers to these very serious questions,” said David Shearer.