Bill English has a major problem. He has told New Zealand that he didn’t change his family trust arrangements to rort the accommodation allowance system.
His suggestion is that the timing is co-incidental. Officials however went to the Prime Minister before accepting his claim.
I’m yet to meet anyone who believes him and can give a credible explanation that does not involve a rort.
It is vital that the Minister of Finance not have this problem overshadowing him. Any suggestion of lack of veracity causes the country international problems. It certainly doesn’t help our credit rating if we look like a number of countries where this sort of issue is commonplace.
And in NZ he is trying to make cuts. How can he do that under this cloud.
There may be a good, but personal, reason for the change. I can’t imagine what it might be.
I have an offer for Bill. He can brief me. I undertake to keep his reason confidential whether or not I think it is reasonable. If it is reasonable I will say so publicly and apologise. If not reasonable I will say just that.
Mr Mallard there have been lots of times when you have made wild allegations about people and then danced on the head of a pin afterwards to avoid apologising.
It’s a nice idea you appointing yourself as the arbiter of Mr English’s accommodation allowances, but perhaps I should remimnd you that you’re not in government anymore, and that is Mr Key’s job.
I think it is more believable that Mr English conducted himself in good faith and with integrity than, for example, the case of Mr Peters last year, which Ms Clark expected the public to believe.
I hope that Bill is the PM one day, he is one of the few true conservatives in National. We need more like him, he’s as honest as the day is long.
You mean Bill isn’t in charge ?
I thought he was already calling the shots !
Yes he is a true conservative, like that fellow tory Alan Duncan in the Motherland, he just didn’t think he was getting paid enough.
Unlike Duncan, he did something about it, deleted defamatory Trevor
Why is Labour supporting these changes? Hypocrisy?
@Tanya – “as honest as the day is long”?
In August he said he didn’t change his ownership structure to get the allowance.
This morning Dom Post reveals they have received an OIA from PM’s Office that directly contradicts this.
You seriously maintain this doesn’t go to his honesty?
We can’t. He’s lied outright and should be fired.
What tosh.
The critical bit from the story is this (as long as it’s correctly reported):
First, him listed as owner with Mary doesn’t mean they were joint owners at all. It sounds like they were owners as trustees of the Endeavour Trust.
Second, late last year there was obviously a variation to the trust deed whereby Bill English retired as trustee and Mary took over as sole trustee. Hence the title shows Mary solely. This rings true if English is correct when he said the house had always been owned by the Endeavour Trust.
Third, it also seems that the Trust Deed was further varied removing Bill English as a beneficiary, probably by appointing trustees of his trust as a discretionary beneficiary, but the link between his trust (whatever it’s called) as a beneficiary and him being a beneficary of his trust is obviously too tenious to count as him having a beneficial interest in the Endeavour Trust.
Idiot/Savant has called this “fraud”. He is unequivocally wrong. Bill English called it “not a good look”. That is more on the button I think.
Hello Gooner
Your argument seems to have taken motive out of the sequence of events. How does that sequence look when you ask ‘Why did Mr English retire from being a trustee of the Endeavour Trust?’
Also, does anyone know how many people were trustees in this trust before Bill English retired for it? If it was just two people, that seems very similar to the couple owning the house to me.
If English, as a Conservative, was calling the shots, then he wouldn’t allow Key to ingore recent, stunning referendum result, Simon, nor would he make condescending comments about the Kiwi Party, as Key seems to. Not impressed, though I do believe that Bill English means well and has more moral courage. National arn’t conservatives though on the whole, more like socially liberal reformers. English works hard, he derserves the perks, and he is voted in by an electorate.
Hi Tanya
Who is in charge of the parliamentary leader of the National Party is up to that party’s caucus. They have gone with Key as the front man.
I do not feel able to speculate on what Bill English would or wouldn’t do as prime minister. I would point out that that in 2008 he voted for the change to section 59 of the Crimes Act, along with the rest of the National Party caucus.
I am unable to agree with your view that the National party are socially liberal reformers.
you would think that there wasnt an employee who took steps to maximise their wage/ salary entitlements .
How many people take all their sick leave without being sick.?
Politicians are no different than the rest of us so why single Bill English out
He may have told the truth and if so it can be very easily sorted. The alternative view is that he lied to Key and Ministerial Services. If he did that then we will get a new deputy Prime Minister.
Deleted Please try and stay on topic Tim Trevor
Off topic Trevor.
Hello again Tanya
Also off topic Trevor
I said on an earlier post that I had problems when he took his name off as a “trust”ee. I still have faith though that he is doing a good job under trying circumstances.
As far as trust’s go generally .. I think they are a farce.
He isn’t going to get fired, he did nothing wrong, and this is the same dirty dirt digging style as over Mr Key that turned everyone off of the Labour party the last time. But keep niggling about it.
Bill English will not have lied to Parliamentary Services Mr Mallard, there is nothing in this story, the big dog deputy is going to remain so. It was always owned by Endeavour trust, they weren’t joint owners, just joint trustees.