Joyce Steven: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Joyce Steven: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 20 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8022. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development) 
: 
 Ah! The only problem with that observation from the pro tem leader of the Labour Party is that it is all rubbish. Firstly the Deputy Auditor-General made it clear that there is nothing—nothing at all—to suggest that the final decision to negotiate with Skycity was influenced by any inappropriate considerations. The report says that a great deal of careful work was undertaken by officials to understand the market and that the officials were acting in good faith and it stresses that any issues were procedural rather than about the substance of what was being considered. So that is the first problem with the Opposition’s opposition to this proposed deal. 
There are two other problems with the Opposition’s opposition to this particular deal and the first one is political history because despite its virulent opposition—its virulent opposition—to the proposal that is in front of us it did the same thing not 10 years ago. In fact the former Prime Minister “St Helen of Mt Albert” Helen Clark actually said in respect of the previous Skycity convention centre poker-machine deal: “Here in New Zealand it has been pleasing to see continuing investment in the quality of our tourism infrastructure. In Auckland Sky City has pumped $140 million into its new Convention Centre”. And the tourism Minister of the day Mark Burton said that the investment “will give it the capacity to compete for a whole new range of prestige events. The potential gains from this are widespread—not only for Skycity but for the Auckland city and region the tourism industry and the whole of New Zealand.” This was the Labour Party not 10 years ago. Today the Labour Party is a new Labour Party that wants nothing to do with those sorts of arrangements. 
The interesting thing—and the second problem Labour has—is that this is supposed to be the new “hands-on” Labour Party that is supposedly interested in rolling its sleeves up and making hands-on approaches to Government. Well not today—not today. Today it is hands-off. Today the chief whip of the Labour Party was on the radio saying: “The market should provide. We shouldn’t get involved in regulatory deals for Skycity convention centres. It is the market that should provide.” That was Mr Hipkins just this morning as he repudiated the new “hands-on” approach of the Labour Party. But it was only today that it was hands-off—really! Well apart from with  
The Hobbit 
. With  
The Hobbit 
 Labour was also hands-off. It did not want any law changes to allow the  
Hobbit 
 films to be done here. 
It is also hands-off on resource management law changes. So Labour is hands-on except for resource management and for  
The Hobbit 
 and it is also hands-off for the Auckland convention centre. 
Hon Paula Bennett 
: And job creation. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: And job creation. Yes it is hands-off there. It is hands-off for oil and gas exploration. It does not want anything to do with any law changes there. But apart from that it is very hands-on. Well except for Bathurst Resources at the Denniston Plateau. It is hands-off about that but that is just an exception. It is also hands-off about aquaculture investment. Yes indeed it is hands-off about that. Apart from that it is hands-on. Oh no actually no. It is hands-off. It does not want any international investment. It does not want any increase in irrigation or intensification of agriculture. It is hands-off there too. But apart from that it is hands-on which means that it is hands-on only in one way and that is hands on your wallet. That is the only way the Labour Party is hands-on: it is hands on the taxpayers’ wallet. That is its solution to every problem. It would roll out the cheque book raise the debt and get the Greens to print the money. That would be the solution. 
So today we have learnt that Labour’s “hands-on” slogan is rubbish. We have learnt that it has a new hypocrisy about what it did 10 years ago. We have learnt that the Opposition leader is grasping at straws with an Office of the Auditor-General report that frankly says that there were only some procedural issues and that the substantive result would not have been changed. That is the quality of the Government’s opposition today.