Prime Minister John Key is under fire from opposition parties this afternoon, after taking a whole six hours to respond to the breaking news that All Black Aaron Smith had sex in an airport bathroom.
News of the month-old sexual incident broke at around 7am this morning, followed by the emergence of grainy pictures and dramatic footage, but it wasn’t until 1pm in the afternoon that the Prime Minister finally commented on the story.
Key said that Smith had “clearly let himself and those that are close to him down,” and that he would “probably be reflecting on that.”
“He’s embarrassed the All Blacks, he’s an integral part of the All Blacks, actually, so he won’t want to be sitting on the sidelines, and frankly, he’s embarrassed himself a bit.
“I think most New Zealanders would probably agree that sex is something that should be done in a private place, preferably with consenting adults.”
But Labour leader Andrew Little, while saying he largely agreed with those statements, thinks the Prime Minister took “far too long” to respond to the incident that has gripped a nation.
“This news breaks early morning,” said Little, “and first thing I tell my staff is, get something out there, say something, anything, really, just to let people know that we know, we care.
“The Prime Minister takes six hours – at least six hours – by this time, it’s well after lunch, to say anything at all, and then says what I think we all knew all along, which is that All Black had sex in that bathroom.”
Little said New Zealanders would have been left “scared” and “uncertain about what to feel” without any guidance or leadership on the issue from the Government.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters agreed, saying it was up to the Prime Minister to lead during times of crisis.
“If, by this point, you think this bloody joker and his cronies are going to do anything right by real New Zealanders, then by golly, you’ve got another thing coming,” he said. “Why did it take him all the way into the afternoon to say a damned thing about it? It’s rubbish.”
Peters said he’d had constituents “calling me all morning, thinking that people are going around having sex in toilets and that he doesn’t even care about it.”
Key, who is in Christchurch today, says he took “appropriate time” to “ascertain all of the facts” before commenting, and had visited the toilet cubicle personally.