Clark David: New Zealand International Convention Centre Act 2013 Repeal Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeClark David: New Zealand International Convention Centre Act 2013 Repeal Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 22 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5226. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North): The New Zealand International Convention Centre deal is a shoddy deal built on the back of problem gambling. When other bidders were knocked out of this process the New Zealand International Convention Centre was talked about as hosting conferences of up to five—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! I am sorry. I do not want these interjections across the Chamber that have got nothing to do with the debate in hand. We have settled that matter. If this continues then I will intervene at the time. That is the end of the story.Dr DAVID CLARK: We need to preserve my voice. At the time the deal was struck they were talking about conventions of up to 5000 people in the main plenary sessions. Now we have a convention centre that is a little over half that size: 2850 people in the main plenary centre. The size of the convention centre the world-class iconic convention centre we were promised has been halved. It has been halved—and that is since the other bidders were knocked out of the contest. The deal has not been transparent. It was a shoddy deal done behind closed doors between Mr Key and the executives at Skycity.The Labour Party will support this bill to select committee because we think it needs the transparency of sunlight the disinfectant of sunlight on the deal to understand just to what extent the taxpayer has been put over a barrel by Mr Joyce and Mr Key. We know that the taxpayer has been put over a barrel. That was obvious from the start. I predicted it in 2013 and it was reported in the media. The original agreement was so poorly written—it was so poorly written—it was extremely obvious that Skycity would come back and ask for more money. Lo and behold—what happened? Just over a year later Skycity came back and Mr Joyce was out there peddling the benefits of extra rates or taxes on New Zealanders to fund the centre. That is exactly what happened because that original deal was so poor.The Auditor-General said the deal was neither transparent nor even-handed. I have never read anything the Auditor-General has said that has been so strong and clear about the actions of the Prime Minister and his Government—neither transparent nor even-handed. That is straight talk and it is accurate. This is a shoddy deal and it has been shoddy from the start. The Government’s own department told it that there would be 8000 people—more than 8000 people—affected by problem gambling because it does not affect just the problem gamblers who are created. Although there will be hundreds more of them the department says it affects many other people too. This is a shoddy deal and New Zealanders will be paying for it for a long time to come.Nobody thinks that an international convention centre is a bad idea. The concern is over the way it has been done. We think that a select committee process will give an opportunity for the real story to come to light for New Zealanders to understand just how far this has gone and just what a position the taxpayer has been put in by an inept Government that is so out of touch and so arrogant that it thinks it can come back after saying it was a free convention centre and say that the ratepayers of Auckland should stump up. This is a Government that is so out of touch that when that does not happen it says: “We will not remove any concessions but we think Skycity can make the centre 10 percent smaller.” Fine OK—go for it. Skycity’s bottom line is what it is protecting not the taxpayers of New Zealand and that has been true from the start. If we have a select committee process if this Government does not block it because it is afraid of the disinfectant of sunlight—and I suspect it will but we will see—then we will hear the real story behind this deal. It will come out into the daylight and New Zealanders will be appalled. This Government is out of touch and arrogant if it thinks it can block this and that the questions will stop coming because they will not. New Zealanders are not happy with what has happened here.Of course Treasury also advised that the cost-benefit analysis was dubious. It said it had strong concerns—“strong concerns that private benefits to SkyCity will exceed public benefits to New Zealanders”. This deal is from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment of course which brought us the $140000 TV screens the $260000 sundeck the reception desk that cost $74000 the sign out the front for $67000 and the hair straighteners—that is right. This same ministry negotiated this deal. I do not blame the officials. This is a meddling Minister who directs deals in favour of his Government’s interests and not in favour of New Zealanders’ interests.The independent report on how many jobs this would create was actually called for by the ministry and on its website it says it would create a net 18 jobs for the economy at the end of all of this once building and construction is over. Eighteen jobs—and that was when we had the bigger convention centre. How many now Mr Joyce? I would be interested in an answer to that. It was net 18 jobs because the jobs are taken out of Hamilton Taupō and Rotorua. What are the people in those communities saying? What are they saying—