Dyson Ruth: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dyson Ruth: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 20 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8030. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to take a call in this general debate. Could I recommend this book the Deputy Auditor-General’s report to the National Party members? It is worth reading. Instead of just repeating the lies that have been presented to them in their research notes and then reading them out to the House read this report and hang your heads in shame. This is not what New Zealanders expect of their Government let alone of their Prime Minister. 
I do not mind if the National Party wants to do a lot of legislation that I do not agree with and I do not mind if it wants to introduce policies that make me feel ill when I look at the impact on people who live in my communities because that is its right as a democratically elected Government in our country. It was elected to implement what I think are bad policies but we are not part of the Government. We will be in 18 months’ time. But this is not about bad policies. This is not about a democratically elected Government introducing legislation that is not popular but that it is mandated to do. This is about a shonky dirty deal and it is about that far away from being corrupt. And that is what the Deputy Auditor-General says in the report. 
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga 
: No it’s not. 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: Sam Lotu-Iiga will not have read it. I know he will not have read it. 
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga 
: Have you read it all? 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: I absolutely have and I could quote quite a lot of it. The interesting thing that the National Party has not mentioned in this debate is that actually it is obvious from this report that the Skycity team always intended to build a convention centre. That is what it wanted to do. So not only have we got an organisation that wanted to do a convention centre but we have got the Government personally involved with Ministers having meetings and dinners and saying: “We know you were going to do that. It’s all part of your legitimate business plan. But what we want to do is make it sweeter and easier for you.” 
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga 
: Rubbish. 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: It is bribing an organisation to do something that actually it was going to do anyway. Sam Lotu-Iiga says it is rubbish—he has just confirmed that he has not read the report. It says in here that in 2009 Skycity told officials that it wanted to build a new convention centre. 
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga 
: What page? Quote the page. 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: Read the report lazy member of Parliament read the report. It says that Skycity wanted— 
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I would like the member to sit down while I give my point of order. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Yes and I will hear the point of order. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga 
: Excuse me. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Just get on with the point of order please. 
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga 
: I take offence to that member calling me lazy because those who know me know I am not lazy. That member should quote the page of the report she is referring to. If she says she has read the report— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! This is a robust debating chamber. There will always be comments made about members. I do not think that is one that the member should have taken offence at. I am going to ask the member to continue. 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: Thank you Mr Speaker. The member has actually just confirmed how lazy he is because he wants me to look up the page in the report that I was quoting. You cannot get much lazier than asking a member of another party to look up a report. It is gobsmacking. 
Let me raise a few quotes: “Ministry officials were aware that SkyCity had expressed an interest in extending its existing convention centre across Federal Street or developing a new centre on land it owned in Hobson Street. This awareness arose from communications between Auckland-based Ministry officials and SkyCity during April and May 2009.” Skycity wanted to build the convention centre. It needed no Government assistance. It was always going to do it. It was always going to pay for it. What the Prime Minister has done is expose his shonky deal his need to be snuggling up to business in a way that is that far away from corruption. It is the worst report I have seen in my time in Parliament as to the behaviour of members of Parliament and Ministers. 
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga 
: Quote the page. Quote the page if you know it. 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: Lazy personified. John Armstrong in his comment this morning in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 said that the report showed that we are verging on banana republic kind of stuff without the bananas. He said: “In other words no corruption. Or at least none that could be found.” and that the process had been “neither transparent nor even-handed … Things got so bad”—he reported and it is in the report—“that some officials expressed concern to superiors that proper procedures were not being followed.” 
On every page of this report we see John Key’s statement that there is nothing to see made a lie of. Every single page has a damning comment. Steven Joyce gets the spin going and his trained seals in the National Party repeat it. Read the report and hang your heads in shame.