Little Andrew: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Little Andrew: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 27 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8258. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW LITTLE (Labour) 
: 
 Helen Reddy had a song with lyrics that said: 
That ain’t no way to treat a lady 
No way to treat a lady 
A woman your friend. 
Well we have got a new saying: “That ain’t no way to run a country. The citizens our friends.” This Government is Government by sleaze by slipperiness by shabbiness by tawdriness. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: You’ve been watching too much  
Les Misérables 
. 
ANDREW LITTLE 
: We have never seen the like in this country for as long as I can remember. I have been around for a wee while—not as long as Mr Henare but I have been around a wee while—and I have never seen anything like it. This Government’s conduct and the way it deals with people and businesses is imperilling this nation’s reputation. Up until now we have stood at the top of the non-corruption or anti-corruption league around the world. Well that is slipping now. The mask is slipping because of the way this Government conducts itself because the truth is that when it comes to this Government everything is for sale. It does not matter whether it is State assets and businesses or coalmining companies that it has allowed to run into the ground; it includes law and policy as well. 
We saw it with Skycity. The Government started a process—as you would expect with a Government a non-corrupt Government—going out seeking tenders saying it wanted a convention centre and the minute it got the ear of an outfit that said: “Oh we’ll give you a special deal.” it was into it. It closed out the other potential bidders and maintained a conversation with Skycity throughout. It did not matter about process. It did not matter about the detail. It did not matter about good Government and good governance. It was interested in a cheap shabby deal. It was classic “never mind the quality feel the width” style of Government because that is the way this outfit operates. 
Then we had  
The Hobbit 
. Of course  
The Hobbit  
came before the Skycity deal was exposed but now we have got the truth about  
The Hobbit 
—the real deal. This is the Government and the Prime Minister who claims he is the great manager the great deal-doer. They claimed that they would look after the interests of New Zealand and nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is exposed in an email from Warner Bros. A Warner Bros executive Carolyn Blackwood wrote to what was then the Ministry of Economic Development now called the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment. This was the time when screen producers Sir Peter Jackson and everybody else had said: “Look we’re at risk. The film industry is at risk. We have this snake of an Australian running around compromising our industry. Oh woe is us! Save us!” they said. “Save us”—our meek humble little industry that generates $250 million per movie for Sir Peter Jackson—“we’re at risk because this snake of an Australian is running around.” 
Then what did the Warner Bros executive say from her air-conditioned office in Los Angeles? She was not really alert to what was really happening in New Zealand. She said: “… we are committed to NZ both because of Peter and Fran’s deep commitment to be there [but also because of] our significant investment to date (and in the future) …”. They had already plunged $100 million into production; they were not going anywhere. They were not going anywhere and this was days before the real deal had been done when the blacklist had been lifted and there was no need for anything further. But she went on to say because she could see the main chance and with Sir Peter Jackson breathing down her neck that there was one remaining concern: “… the uncertainty of the labor issues creates real risk to us.” 
So what did she say? What did she say when Gerry Brownlee asked: “Well where would you go if it was not in New Zealand?”—where would she go when she has complained about the snake in Australia? She said: “New South Wales”—New South Wales where she would be dealing with the same snake. It just was not credible. You read between the lines and you can see there was no issue here. If there was ever a time when this Government should have said: “There’s nothing going on here move on.” this was it but it did not because it wanted to cuddle up to corporate America lick its boots and do its dirty work for it. 
Then she went on to say this. She said that they had got a deal from Australia and that they had been offered financial incentives. She said it was “a very attractive incentive to us.”—from Australia—“When I asked you”—this is the Ministry of Economic Development—“if your office (or perhaps another branch of the government) was available to discuss that sort of thing with us too or if you would consider anything similar to help us … address our growing risk profile (especially given the currency issues”—because they were concerned about the rising New Zealand dollar—“… it sounded like you were amenable to that conversation.”