The Greens have got hold of an official report that National has had for 2 years showing that the SkyCity deal will add just 18 jobs to the economy as a whole. Joyce in his ‘defence’ says the report looks at the wider economic impact on Auckland city, rather than the number of workers needed at the convention centre. Uh, huh. Everyone thought they were promising 800 extra jobs for the country, when the real number is 18.
SkyCity will get more pokies and cashless gambling in return for building the convention centre that it always wanted to build. (…excuse me, I’m just trying not to puke watching Len Brown on Breakfast as he shrugs off the problem gambling increase from this deal…) The convention centre will be a white elephant. SkyCity should know that what’s done can be undone.
Update: Anyone buying in to the Nats’ “Labour did it too” line should read Russell Brown’s demolition of that lie.
The Auditor-General has announced an enquiry into John Key’s SkyCity deal. The deal should now be put on hold while the enquiry goes ahead.
The Herald’s revealed that, in 2001, Judith Collins, as chair of the Casino Control Authority, rubber-stamped a ‘pokies for convention centre’ deal with SkyCity. This triggered the then Labour Government limit the number of pokies by statute. Now, the Nats are doing another dirty deal with the cancer in Auckland’s heart but, thanks to Labour, they can’t do it on the quiet.
Key’s selling our gambling law to SkyCity in return for a convention centre with no government capital contribution. But, MED says, we would be subsidising that convention centre with $10m for starters. Plus marketing costs. And, then, ongoing subsidies both if convention numbers fall short and as a kickback when it does host conventions.
A sad story in the Herald today of a man who got hooked on pokies. It has destroyed his family and relationships. He’s started ripping off clients at work. All to put money in the machines that SkyCity profits from. SkyCity has so many addicts customers it says it needs more machines. SkyCity is a cancer. We shouldn’t just stop its expansion. We should excise it.
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here.
National leads the way when it comes to generating ideas that will grow corporate profits at the expense of the community and, ultimately, the taxpayer. So here’s some more ideas…
Back before John Key’s political nous deserted him (circa mid-November 2011), he would have run a mile from the dirty pokies deal with SkyCity. Instead, he’s claiming the dirty deal as his own and SkyCity’s chairman bragging about his access to Nat ministers. All to build a useless convention centre that will demand ongoing subsidies. Not worth the political capital.
