Parker David: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Parker David: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 20 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8023. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 There is no way that the Government can claim vindication from this report. This is another tawdry example of low standards by a Government that does the opposite of what it says it will do. It was elected with John Key saying: “I expect high standards from my Ministers. If they don’t meet the standards I set then obviously I will take action if necessary.”—except when it is him. 
Time after time we have got low standards from this Prime Minister whether it is the teapot tapes and using the police against the media during the election; whether it is the Dotcom affair where he had brain fades and denied having received information about Dotcom because it was embarrassing for the line he was running; or whether it is the spin that he is now putting on this report from the Deputy Auditor-General in respect of Skycity. 
The Office of the Auditor General says: “we do not consider that the approach adopted was appropriate. The result was that one submitter was treated differently from the others during the evaluation process.” And what are the consequences worth? Millions and millions of dollars and of course terrible social harm from gambling. 
The Deputy Auditor-General’s report shows that officials were worried. On 12 November a ministry official emailed the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet summarising where the process was at noting that Treasury had advised that ministry officials should seek advice from the Auditor-General to determine the probity of the current process with Skycity. The Deputy Auditor-General says it was emailed to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 
What does the Prime Minister say today? Oh no record of it being found on their side. That is just not credible because do you know what? Some days later we had a personal note sent to the Prime Minister. I will read what the Deputy Auditor-General says for this: “The Treasury’s comments were referred to in a 12 November 2009 email from a Ministry official to DPMC and included in a private DPMC briefing note to the Prime Minister on 3 December 2009.” 
What did he do today in respect of being asked about that note about that reminder? He obfuscated. He did not answer the question. He denied effectively taking responsibility for the fact that the officials were worried the officials were concerned the officials were warning the ministry Treasury had been alerted to it Treasury was worried and raised it with the Prime Minister and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet raised it to the Prime Minister again. Still the Prime Minister ignored it. And he pretends he comes here with clean hands. 
It is just as incredible as his earlier denials of responsibility around involvement with Dotcom his refusal to read the other things involving Skycity again on that occasion with Mr Banks in respect of the donations saga which was plainly illegal. The Prime Minister is not worried about it. It is banana republic stuff as John Armstrong said in the  
New Zealand Herald 
. It is disgraceful conduct. It is the slippery slope towards corruption. 
In Auckland business people are worried about it. When this happened before this report came out I had approaches from amongst the most senior business people in Auckland who were saying it was not fair. It was not fair that a secret deal is done with Skycity showing that regulatory holidays are available worth millions and millions of dollars and that they are not shown as potentially available to other tenderers who might be interested or other people who might be interested in building a convention centre. It is disgraceful cronyism. 
It is on the back of the Prime Minister having Mr McElrea his electorate chair on the Broadcasting Commission also known as New Zealand On Air. It is on the back of the teapot tapes saga. No standard is too low for this Government. We are sliding towards being a banana republic in respect of these sorts of issues. 
This is the Government that is pretending to make amendments to improve fiscal responsibility when it will not even adhere to the standards of decency openness and transparency which we have long held to in New Zealand and which we should strive to uphold every day. This sorry saga does not reflect well on the Government or the Prime Minister.