Key comfortable with Sabin ‘process’
THE Mike Sabin saga has rumbled on, with Prime Minister John Key defending both his own handling and the actions of his right-hand man.
It emerged on Tuesday that chief of staff Wayne Eagleson got it wrong when he said Labour tipped him off to rumours about the former Northland MP in December.
In fact, as phone records provided by Labour show, it was a week earlier, on November 26. It took another week for Eagleson to tell his boss.
Key says this is because ‘‘he was going through a process of gathering other information. I am quite comfortable in the process he went through.’’
Eagleson already knew about allegations about Sabin, because ‘‘a number of sources’’ alerted him on November 25, Key said.
He is also ‘‘comfortable’’ with his own management of Sabin, who stepped down last Friday, sparking a by-election. He has been the centre of a police investigation since at least August.
‘‘Immediately [I] took the view given the information that I had that there was no further action to take at that time,’’ Key said.
‘‘Personally, I think that is absolutely the right decision. I’m quite comfortable with it so speeding up that process decision a few days wouldn’t have made any difference.’’
National is under fire for being slow to pick up on Sabin’s troubles, for appointing him chairman of Parliament’s law and order select committee, and for not standing him down immediately.
But Key insists he was oblivious to any issues about Sabin be- fore December 1. It first became public on December 21, but journalists had been asking questions of police and other government departments since at least November 24.
‘‘ I got my information from Mr Eagleson on the 1st of December,’’ Key said. At that point he did not think standing Sabin down from the select committee was ‘‘the right thing to do’’.
Labour leader Andrew Little says he doesn’t believe the prime minister’s timeline of events.
The Northland by-election will take place on March 28.