ACT Party leader John Banks finally reappeared in Parliament today to face questions over the Dotcom donations saga, but the scandal hit politician said he has nothing more to say on the matter.
Banks faced questions over controversial donations internet millionaire Kim Dotcom made to him during his unsuccessful 2010 mayoral campaign.
He maintains he did not know the two $25,000 donations he received were from the German internet mogul.
But this goes against police documents, which show Dotcom, in a sworn statement, offered Banks $50,000 for his mayoral campaign during a June 2010 meeting at his Coastesville mansion.
Speaking today Banks said: "A team of the very best police officers that this country could assemble went through this intensively and extensively.
"They weighed every word of every witness, every sentence of every witness, every paragraph of every witness, and they concluded no charges, and we've moved on."
He later added: "Everything that needs to be said has been said."
But opposition parties have been quick to point out that police were prevented from charging Banks for making a false electoral return because a time limit on the law wouldn't allow it.
Despite this, Prime Minister John Key maintained he has full
confidence in Banks.
During question time Key faced a barrage of questions on the
issue.
Labour deputy leader, Grant Robertson, asked: "If the test for John Banks retaining his confidence is that he has done everything in accordance with the law, why will he not read a report from the police that says that Mr Banks breached the law?"
Key replied: "Because I don't need to. The test is whether I can rely on the member's word.
"He'd given me an assurance he met the law.
"Police have quite clearly said there was insufficient evidence, there's a statute of limitations, he's complied with the law."
Greens co-leader Metiria Turei asked the Prime Minister if he had a new policy in place that means ministers are not responsible for documents they sign, and if this was a new 'don't read, don't care' defence on "Planet Key".
Key responded by saying that was not the case, and that Banks was not a minister when he signed the document.
Speaking afterwards, Labour leader David Shearer said Key had appeared to shift his defence during the Parliamentary session.
"John Key's previous claim was that John Banks hadn't broken the law simply because he said so. And that was good enough for the Prime Minister," he said.
"Now John Banks is supposedly innocent just because the time ran out on a charge being filed.
"That is a ridiculous attempt at a defence."
Shearer added that he found this explanation "completely farcical".
"The police report clearly states that a false return was made and, on that issue, the law had been breached and the elements for prosecution had been met," he said.
"That is completely at odds with John Key's claim that John Banks hasn't broken the law.
"New Zealanders expect the Prime Minister to do what is right, not what is politically convenient for him. John Key came into power promising to set higher ethical standards but he has let Kiwis down.
"It is incredible that the Prime Minister thinks it is okay for one of his ministers to break the law as long as they can get away with it.
"The evidence is there for John Key to see with his own eyes. He should just read the police files. But he doesn't want to do that because it would force him to sack his political prop."
Banks has been avoiding media questions since a police report released last week showed it was likely yet unprovable that he knew the anonymous donations were from Dotcom.
During question time Dotcom took to Twitter to express his feelings on the subject.
He said: "John Banks bigmouthed "Full disclosure" & "Nothing to HIDE". Yet his police interview remains undisclosed & hidden."