I support Michael Wood and his wife Julie Fairy.
I have had the pleasure of talking to Michael many times over the decades and I went to University with his wife.
They are both the most scrupulously ethical people in the world and the insinuation that either are corrupt because of conflicts of interest generated because Michael bought airport shares when he was a child are absurd and an unfair smear on his character.
Michael is a deeply honest man with a deep moral centre, his political life has been in the service of the public and he has consistently championed for the most vulnerable in society.
Claims he made a self interested ruling on Dairy Flat Airport while having shares in Auckland are equally absurd.
Chippy has done the sensible thing by standing him down until these bloody shares are sold.
Mistakes happen, here’s David Seymour making a mistake about his interests…
Act leader David Seymour has made a virtue of owning no property, but is now correcting the record to show he is a beneficiary of trusts that own three properties.
Seymour is embarrassed about what he calls an “honest mistake”, and says he has legal advice saying he doesn’t really own any of those properties: his grandparents’ beach house in Northland, a neighbouring section of land, and his father’s house in Whangārei.
But he accepts he could end up owning some of them – or a share in some of them – as a beneficiary of the trusts, so these will be included as his “real properties” in the upcoming 2021 register of MPs’ pecuniary and other specified interests.
The register will also show that Seymour has a KiwiSaver account that he says dropped off his radar until the start of this year.
…David, like Michael and Julie, made a mistake and for those attempting to claim malice and corruption in Michael’s mistake, let’s remind ourselves what an actual conflict of interest looks like.
Remember John Key?
Key caught out over rail shares
Labour has accused National leader John Key of lying over his ownership of Tranz Rail shares after revealing he failed to completely disclose his interests.
Labour research has found that Mr Key owned 100,000 Tranz Rail shares rather than the 30,000 owned by a family trust he previously admitted to.
He bought 50,000 of the shares in his own name while he was an MP and on the transport and industrial relations select committee.
The shareholding was first raised by Prime Minister Helen Clark in July, when she accused Mr Key of having a conflict of interest for having the 30,000 shares in 2003 while criticising the Government’s bid to buy the rail operator back.
Mr Key admitted to the 30,000 shares and said he sold them when he wanted to speak out about the Government’s plans. But Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen last night released share register information showing the 100,000 shares and said Mr Key “failed to correct reports” his shareholding was limited to the 30,000 shares.
“John Key lied because he had something to hide,” Dr Cullen said.
Dr Cullen said the new information showed Mr Key “was commenting publicly on Tranz Rail, meeting with bidders for the track, and pursuing the release of relevant information while an undisclosed shareholder”.
Dr Cullen said the 50,000 shares Mr Key purchased should have been disclosed in line with Parliament’s standing orders.
Labour will now use the non-disclosure as a major platform of attack against Mr Key.
“Mr Key has spent a lot of time over the last few weeks attacking the character and credibility of others,” Dr Cullen said. “He said people should not have to wait for direct questions to provide relevant information to the public.”
In an interview with One News last night, Mr Key faltered when asked about the shares, initially saying his family owned 25,000-50,000 shares, then shifting to “sometimes 50,000, sometimes 100,000” then finally “yeah, sorry, it was 100,000 in total”.
Asked why he had only ever admitted to the 30,000 shares owned by the family trust, Mr Key said: “No one’s ever asked me the number I owned.”
Labour’s research shows Mr Key’s trust bought 30,000 shares in 2002 before he was an MP. The trust bought another 20,000 shortly afterwards.
Mr Key then entered Parliament and asked parliamentary questions about Tranz Rail, not disclosing his shareholding.
In May 2003, Mr Key bought the 50,000 shares in his own name.
He sold the shares in June 2003 in two 50,000 lots.
…So Key was commenting publicly on Tranz Rail, meeting with bidders for the track, and pursuing the release of relevant information while an undisclosed shareholder!
THAT’S WHAT A FUCKING CONFLICT OF INTEREST LOOKS LIKE!
Attempting to twist Michael’s mistake into corruption is ugly politics, especially when you consider a 7 property owning Chris Luxon who is getting massive donations from Real Estate Pimps, who will give Landlords the right to evict and who is charging the taxpayer a cool $45,000 a year to rent an office for himself, from himself!is the very walking example of a conflict of interest!
Pretending Wood is the symbol of conflicts of interest when the fucking National Party are drawing hundreds of thousands in donations from the billionaire and Real Estate Pimp class is the usual bullshit game of distraction.
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