John Armstrong: National's SkyCity damage control
5:30 AM Thursday Feb 21, 2013
Labour leader David Shearer claimed the report implicated the Prime Minister, rather than vindicating him. Key was in it up to eyeballs. He was in donkey-deep. Photo / Getty Images
To watch Parliament yesterday was to witness an escape act of almost Houdini-like proportions. Moreover, one which was carried off with the performer barely breaking into a sweat.
Opposition MPs had valid reason to think they could wipe the smile off John Key's face as they peppered him with tricky questions flowing from the content of Tuesday's report by Deputy Auditor-General Phillippa Smith into how SkyCity became the preferred bidder for the construction of a national convention centre.
Labour leader David Shearer claimed the report implicated the Prime Minister, rather than vindicating him. Key was in it up to eyeballs. He was in donkey-deep.
Pinning the tail on this particular beast of burden turned out to be a far more difficult proposition.
Shearer queried how Key could have said last year that his office had not had any correspondence, discussions or involvement in the convention centre proposal when the Prime Minister and his chief of staff had dined with the SkyCity board members.
It looked like an open-and-shut case until Key quashed it by explaining the statement had been made in the context of the later "expression of interest" stage, when neither he nor his office was involved. A check of the transcript of TVNZ's Q+A programme reveals Key was right.
National's damage control strategy has been to try to paint Key's earlier contacts with SkyCity as perfectly normal.
In labelling the process as unsatisfactory, unfair and not even-handed however, Smith's report has added significant grist to those who think SkyCity got preferential treatment. But having vigorously opened this can of worms, Smith then put the lid back on again, offering only some fairly muted expressions of concern in her summing-up about flaws in a process which should have resulted in a competitive tender.
That reticence has given Key room to move - or spin to be more exact. Further Opposition attempts to chain him down faltered on him variously coming up with new explanations for alleged inconsistencies or simply not answering the question - a tactic designed to take the pressure off him as the Opposition got sidetracked into lengthy wrangles with new Speaker David Carter.
It was the roughest question-time that Carter has faced so far, bringing an admission for the first, but surely not the last, time that his patience was wearing thin.
Given that a large part of their ideology is to out-source public services by tendering them, through public-private partnerships, charter schools, and the like, this is a significant problem.
I would not want Mr Key to be CEO of any company I was investing in.
Government was looking at all options, including government subsidized options up until the Christchurch earthquake. The quake ate all the funds, leaving only one bidder who would do it without taxpayer or ratepayer subsidy. Not an underhand plot, or cronyism nor favouritism, but fiscal management.
The social issue is another matter; whether the social costs of gambling exceed the social benefits of a convention centre is a fair question. A good case exists that social costs will exceed benefits.
Reality is a convention centre paid for by Sky City, or no convention centre. (taxpayer or ratepayer will not pick up the bill) Auckland has decided it wants a convention centre no matter what the cost. It would prefer it cleanly funded, rather than one funded by Sky City; but as cleaner funding is not available, it has chosen Sky City over no convention centre at all.
I think Government & Auckland have made the wrong decision, but that is the decision they have made. Anyone wanting to change it, please front with a few hundred million $ from your own pocket; literally PUT UP OR SHUT UP.
It happens without fail. Whenever they are put under pressure, when a critical report comes out or the latest piece of bad news is announced, the next thing they do is to release a new piece of policy that allows them to attack people on a benefit.
Happened again yesterday.
Shameful - and predictable.