Clark David: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeClark David: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 11 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1456. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]5.Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North)to the Minister for Economic Development: How much extra money if any is the Government prepared to give SkyCity as part of the convention centre deal?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development):I have been clear all the way through that our least preferred option is to provide any funding to Skycity for the convention centre. We are in the process of discussions and I am not prepared to conduct those discussions in the public domain as that would undermine our position. However obviously the outcome of any such negotiations and discussions would be reported publicly and I will advise the member at the time.Dr David Clark: When will he front up and tell taxpayers how much of their money he is planning to spend to save a deal that he promised would be free?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The deal that we are talking about of course is a deal to build a $402 million convention centre—which the Labour Party opposed by the way but now suddenly seems weirdly in favour of. In due course I will advise the member—Dr David Clark: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I have tried to make my questions particularly straight today. It was a question about the time frame. The Minister has gone off on a tangent—Mr SPEAKER: Order! There was so much noise coming from there. I apologise to the member—I did not hear his point of order when he raised it. By the time the point of order was recognised the Minister was about to I think answer the question. So if we can allow the Minister to complete—[Interruption] Order! The level of interjections coming from my left is getting to a very unsatisfactory stage. I do not want to start this year by asking members to leave but if we are going to have members interjecting while I am on my feet those members leave me little choice. I am going to ask the Hon Steven Joyce to complete his answer at which stage I will determine whether that answer has been addressed.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: What I was saying is that there is no formal timetable at this stage for the conclusion of discussions; nor is there any commitment to pay any money at this time.Dr David Clark: Why should taxpayer money be given to a casino company that in the last 6 months alone made a net profit of $66.6 million?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: There is no requirement to do so at all but the discussion is about the construction of a convention centre. It has agreed to build one for $402 million. It has come to us with a concern about extra costs. We are currently evaluating those. We are currently discussing with it its process of procurement and so on. Any change to the agreement would be agreed by the parties when they decide to do so and in the meantime the agreement that is afoot is at $402 million.Dr David Clark: Is he aware that the value of Skycity shares surged by $76 million yesterday on the back of comments about a taxpayer-funded bailout and does this not just show that Skycity knows it has the Government over a barrel of its own making?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I would be very surprised if the price of a Skycity share went up by $76 million in 1 day but I know that the member is a very clever Treasury analyst so maybe he knows a little bit more about it than we do.Dr David Clark: I seek leave to table a document showing that the market capitalisation of Skycity rose by $76 million on the day of the Prime Minister’s announcement—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I need the source of the document.Dr David Clark: The source is the Parliamentary Library.Mr SPEAKER: I do not want to hear—[Interruption] Order! I will put the leave on this occasion but the point of tabling is for further information for members; it is not to make a political point. On the basis that this could better inform members I will put the leave. Leave is sought to—Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Speaking to the point of order—Mr SPEAKER: No I am putting the—[Interruption] Order! [Interruption] Order! Leave has been sought to table a document. I therefore need to put the leave and then I can hear a point of order subsequent to that if you wish to raise one. Leave has been sought to table this particular document. Is there any objection? There is objection.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The point of order was that the member was talking about the share price of the company—Hon Member: How is this a point of order?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Well I am just getting to the point.Mr SPEAKER: Order! This is a point of order.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Then he sought to give some information that was in relation to a separate matter which is the overall market capitalisation of the company and that is actually a different item which is why I did not expand on the answer to the question as to why we felt the need to deny leave.Mr SPEAKER: Order! That was not strictly a point of order but I accept that the description within the question and the subsequent tabling of the document probably did not tally as well as I might have hoped. But anyway we are moving forward.Dr David Clark: When he proudly announced in July 2013 that Skycity will meet the full costs of the convention centre was he meaning full costs in a strict legal sense or more in a pretty legal kind of way?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I was referring to the fact that Skycity would pay the full cost of building a $402 million convention centre and that is still the case. It has proposed that there are some additional costs and it has come to us to discuss those costs so we are discussing them. But let us be clear: we know that under the Opposition the $402 million would have been left on the table.