Clark David: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeClark David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 11 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1474. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North):Well John Key has lost his new car smell. We heard today a very lacklustre performance in the House. That man is no longer the energetic Prime Minister he was when he was first elected. His responses to questions today revealed that he is tired. He is part of a tired arrogant third-term Government that has lost its way and that has no new ideas other than bailing out its corporate mates. It has been putting the Armor All on—do not get me wrong. We heard the carpet’s fading a little but the Government will be putting the Armor All on. It will be trying to convince New Zealanders that it has that new car smell.But mark my words New Zealanders are not stupid. New Zealanders know that John Key is losing his touch. He is losing his grip. He is tired and the arrogance that is creeping into his Government is being seen by all New Zealanders for what it is. What we want to talk about here of course is the lemon that taxpayers are being asked to suck in the Skycity deal. Ninety-seven percent of the New Zealanders who responded to the Campbell Live poll last night were very clear that they do not think they want to suck the lemon that John Key is asking them to suck for this deal—for Skycity to bail him out of the political hole that he has built for himself.So New Zealanders will be asking themselves two questions today. They will be asking themselves why John Key and Steven Joyce insisted that this convention centre would be built at no cost to taxpayers and why they said that before the election. Why did they say that and why are they now refusing to promise that that is true? Those are the two questions New Zealanders will be asking.Andrew Little asked John Key about that today in the House. He said: “Does the Prime Minister stand by his promise to New Zealanders that ‘the construction of the new convention centre will not cost taxpayers or ratepayers a cent’ … [?]”—that is a direct quote from the Prime Minister: “the construction of the new convention centre will not cost taxpayers or ratepayers a cent”. John Key shuffled around. He refused to stand by that promise. He tried to pretend that was a promise about some other type of kind convention centre somewhere else—some mysterious convention centre that John Key had not talked about before the election. No he might not stand by that promise; he is talking about a different convention centre. It might actually cost the taxpayer money. He is refusing to rule out some money going into it.And Steven Joyce in July 2013 said: “Under the final agreement and consistent with the Heads of Agreement signed in May Skycity will meet the full project costs of the convention centre …”. I asked Steven Joyce whether he understood that to be the strictly legal understanding of full costs or the pretty legal understanding of full costs for the convention centre. He shuffled his feet also he looked tired but he was arrogant enough to stand there and try to pretend that that is not what he had meant at the time. New Zealanders are seeing through it. They do not want to suck the lemon that John Key is asking them to suck—97 percent of New Zealanders said that they do not want to suck the lemon that John Key in his fading carpeted Armor All-ed car is trying to sell them as something to suck on.Today the Labour Party launched an online petition to get a clear message to John Key to say that we do not want this taxpayer bailout to go ahead. It has had a rapid take-up and anybody watching at home or listening on the wireless might like to have a look—if they can get broadband in their area I might add—to see whether they can sign that petition and make sure that they send a clear message to the Government that the taxpayers are not responsible for bailing John Key out of the political hot water that he has put himself into. They are not responsible for pulling the Minister Steven Joyce off the barrel that he has put himself over. It is not the taxpayer’s responsibility to cover up for their political gaffes and the way that they told taxpayers that things would be free before the election from which they are creeping away now.So Steven Joyce and John Key say that they wanted to proceed but today we also heard from Bill English that his preferred option was to walk away from the deal. He said that he had not been consulted by the Prime Minister on this. He said that he had not been consulted. His preference was to walk away from the Skycity deal. That is where Bill English is. He is the naughty child the black sheep of the family. He is distancing himself from this dodgy deal and I am not surprised. He is trying to get to his maiden surplus. That is the pledge he has made to New Zealanders. He has not got there. He might not get there but he is trying his damnedest to get there. Meanwhile John Key and Steven Joyce are writing cheques on his behalf for political purposes that are fiscally irresponsible that are corporate bailouts and that cannot be described as anything else.So let us have a look at the other things that have gone on in the last few days. Yesterday in fact we heard that $6.66 million—yes $6.66 million—was the net profit for Skycity for the 6 months prior. That came the same day as John Key announced that there was going to be a bailout that it was likely that he was going to consider a bailout. What conclusions can we draw from that? I am going to leave that to those listening at home. There was a $76 million rise in market capitalisation yesterday for Skycity off the back of the news that the Prime Minister is considering a bailout. That is disgraceful—a $76 million market capitalisation increase. Skycity knows that it has got the Government over a barrel. Skycity is maximising it and the Government does not seem to have the guts to say no to stand by the promise it made to New Zealanders that this would be a free convention centre. The Government is walking away. John Key and Steven Joyce are shuffling their feet. I can see them now shuffling their feet. That is what they do when they are uncomfortable when they have told New Zealanders porkies and they are stepping away from that deal.So New Zealanders will not stand for it. They do not want to suck the lemon that John Key is asking them to suck. They do not want the taxpayer to bail the Government out of its political hole. All this was foreseeable of course. It was all in the original deal. The only reason New Zealanders believed that the convention centre deal would be free was that the Government gave assurances but in the original deal it said that either party may come back to the other for cash. It is in the contract. I pointed this out in September 2013 and it was reported in the New Zealand Herald. The Government said: “No no no no. It won’t ever happen. It’s a free convention centre.” Well it has changed its story now and New Zealanders know that that was not honest. It was not upfront. This Government is tired and arrogant and thinks it can get away with telling half-truths with trying to pretend it was a different convention centre it was talking about back then. Well New Zealanders do not believe it Mr Key.Let us examine some of the history here. The convention centre was paid for originally—the original $402 million convention centre not the other one—out of problem gambling. Eight thousand more people would be affected by the effects of problem gambling we were told by Treasury. Eighteen more jobs would be the net effect on the economy we were told by an independent report because jobs would be sucked out of Rotorua and Taupō to fill the convention centre in Auckland when the international visitors come. So I do not know what the MPs in Taupō and Rotorua are saying but I bet they are not happy that the Prime Minister is favouring an Auckland convention centre at great cost to the taxpayer now we are hearing and at the expense of their electorates as well. It goes from bad to worse. But this is a deal that the Government itself put over.The Auditor-General said that this deal was neither transparent nor even-handed—neither transparent nor even-handed. It does not get much stronger from the Auditor-General. That was in response to things like the Prime Minister meeting behind closed doors with Skycity’s executives and giving Skycity information that other bidders did not have. This was not a transparent deal. Once it was under way once that had been pointed out the political imperative came from the National Government. It had the arrogance to say: “Get the deal done. Get the deal done before the election. We will tell New Zealanders it will be free. Get it off the table. They can come back for more money later.” Well New Zealanders are seeing through this and that tired arrogant third-term Government is going to be called to account as we saw in the poll result on Campbell Live last night—97 percent of New Zealanders not wanting to suck this lemon.Treasury said it was not convinced by the cost-benefit analysis. It was clear from the start. It said it had “strong concerns that private benefits to Sky City will exceed public benefits to New Zealanders.”—a quote from Treasury. Public costs will flow to private gain once the centre is paid off. It is a dodgy deal. But that was September 2013. Now we are seeing what is really happening as a consequence of the deal that was signed back then to get it off the political table before the election—to get a deal that was supposed to be free for New Zealanders which we now learn is likely to cost taxpayers money. Well New Zealanders are not standing for it and I urge everybody to go and sign that petition online to make it clear that New Zealanders will not tolerate this and will not put up with John Key’s changing position on the Skycity convention centre.It is typical. We know that when it comes to corporate bailouts there is a history there. There is Novopay. When it goes wrong buy it. In the convention centre contract it says if it goes wrong buy it. It is in the contract. We have had Rio Tinto and no guarantee of jobs. There are white elephants—there is MediaWorks there is Chorus—and there are lots of dodgy deals from a tired third-term Government. This Government is going its own way and New Zealanders are not happy about it.