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John Key is admitting he may have broken Parliament's rules by not fully declaring his Tranz Rail shares.
But the National leader says he didn't benefit financially from knowledge he gained about the government's plan to buy the company.
Key fronted up to a Public Service Association meeting to explain his plan for cutting spending on bureaucracy.
"We are not going to cut jobs, we're just capping them at 36,000" Key said.
He was working what could have been a very hostile crowd but said "I thought they were very cordial and polite. I expected them to be rowdier."
The National leader confirmed there will be no wholesale reorganisation or restructuring of the public service but that "we will halt the runaway growth in government administration."
He clearly relieved to get such an easy run after the rough ride over his Tranz Rail shares with Paul Henry on ONE's Breakfast show on Wednesday morning.
Henry accused Key of not fronting up when he originally knew about the situation and only coming clean now that it had come out into the public domain.
Key admitted he should have been more upfront about the extent of his shareholding which was a huge $70,000 more than he'd initially admitted and he accepted he may have broken Parliament's rules by not fully declaring it at the time.
But the government says it wasn't just a simple mistake.
They are claiming it was a deliberate attempt to hide a serious conflict of interest and saying as a shareholder John Key shouldn't have been asking questions or making public comments about Tranz Rail.
The National leader says Labour should spend less time digging into his past and more time worrying about its own woes.
