Robertson Grant: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Robertson Grant: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 26 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3325. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
: 
 We are looking at the New Zealand Tourism Board’s performance and the report of the Commerce Committee on that. It is quite clear when we look back to the heady days after the 2008 election when the Prime Minister became the Minister of Tourism. He talked of a bold plan for tourism in New Zealand and a clear vision for tourism and said that we should make the most of our advantages and seize the opportunities they provide. Yet what we see from the  
State of the Tourism Sector 2012 
 report and from the Tourism Board’s own statement of intent is an industry that is stagnating. It is an industry that is simply no longer providing the boost to New Zealand’s economy that it once did. But this was of course the very reason the Prime Minister told us he wanted to take the portfolio on—that he would be this great leader to drive the tourism industry forward. Instead all we got were cheesy jokes on  
The 
Late Show with David Letterman 
 and a bad video in the back of a car in Napier. That was about the extent of the vision—the bold plan—that the tourism Minister John Key was going to bring forward to us. 
Then we got a new plan for tourism for New Zealand in this last financial year which is currently ongoing—the building of a convention centre in Auckland. This was the great blueprint the great vision that would provide New Zealand’s tourism boost. There are probably some good arguments for a convention centre in the Auckland area but a convention centre built on what basis? The Prime Minister responded with a top 10 list as he did on the Letterman show. So in terms of tourism and its future for New Zealand I think we could make a top 10 list of reasons why the Skycity pokie deal for the convention centre is in fact not the way forward for New Zealand. 
Reason No. 1 on our top 10 list is that the Problem Gambling Foundation says that Skycity’s “host responsibility is poor and fuels problem gambling”. The casino had 54 incidents of deserted children last year 25 cases of fraud and 14 assaults. So there is reason No. 1 on our top 10 list. 
We can go on. Goldman Sachs has estimated that Skycity will earn an extra $28 million a year on the additional pokie machines that are part of the deal rising to $42 million a year once the convention centre is running. That is the pay-off here. The legislation gets sold off. That is reason No. 2 for us to not like this deal for supposed tourism. 
Another one is the question of how many jobs will be created. The Prime Minister was very keen to tell us that there would be 1000 jobs in the tourism industry—1000 jobs. He overstated by more than half. That is reason No. 3. 
I will go back to the gambling side of things. Casinos return only 2.5 percent of their profits to the community—2.5 percent. So for extra machines going in—supposedly to bolster the tourism industry—the pay-off is more pokie machines and the pay-off of that is money out of the pockets of people who cannot afford it with only 2.5 percent going back to the community. 
We can go on. Reason No. 5 is that based on Goldman Sachs’ estimates there could be a loss of revenue for community organisations from anywhere from $10 million a year upwards. That is the outcome of selling off legislation that is supposedly to benefit tourism in New Zealand but is actually to benefit Skycity. We can go on. 
Reason No. 6 for this not being a good idea is the dodgy way this deal was done and the fact that the Minister of Tourism intervened in a process that was part-way through and said: “Forget all the other bidders. I’ve done the deal over dinner.” So there is reason No. 6 for us. 
Reason No. 7 is that the other bids that were on the table from people like Lloyd Morrison—rest his soul—were bids that did not require the selling off of legislation for New Zealand. That is another reason. 
Reason No. 8 around this is that Mr John Key the Minister of Tourism has told New Zealanders that it is OK to sell off legislation and that that should be part of the deal of being in Government. It is just plain wrong to have that kind of approach to funding tourism in New Zealand. 
This Government knows that this convention deal is a dodgy one. It is one where the Minister of Tourism the Prime Minister John Key has intervened in a process and allowed a non-complying bid to go forward. We now see the situation where we have a dodgy deal that will not do what it says it will do for jobs and will not do as it says it will do for tourism. 
Report noted.