Posts Tagged ‘convention centre’

The Sky City ghost jobs

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, June 8th, 2016 - 63 comments

Radio New Zealand has reported that the promised jobs relating to the construction of the Convention Centre are appearing. But in Thailand, not New Zealand.  Updated with comment on the terms of the supplemental agreement.

Fuck you Auckland!

Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, July 11th, 2015 - 57 comments

That’s the Nats’ message to Auckland, who are getting a taste of some Canterbury style “democracy”.

The SkyCity Deal

Written By: - Date published: 1:11 pm, February 10th, 2015 - 76 comments

Eighteen months ago Stephen Joyce said about the Sky City Convention Centre deal that anything not written down was not happening. It appears that he was wrong as John Key softens us up for more public money being spent on a private convention centre.

SkyCity a nightmare for the Nats

Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, January 12th, 2015 - 76 comments

Far from fading away into the Christmas haze, SkyCity looks likely to be one of the defining political issues for 2015.

SkyCity’s expected subvention explained for John Roughan

Written By: - Date published: 9:28 am, December 27th, 2014 - 42 comments

At last, some of our conservative short-term thinkers have woken up to the elephant in the room with the SkyCity convention centre subvention. Years late and their previous support has cost taxpayers dearly already. Perhaps they could learn to read reports? And think before committing us to be suckers?

Gambling harm: “commercially sensitive”

Written By: - Date published: 5:40 pm, November 5th, 2013 - 23 comments

Are we to expect that next time a cigarette company wants to withhold the evidence that smoking will take 11 years off the life of every second smoker, they just need to do a dodgy deal with National to build a convention centre with added ciggie sale points right? Or the booze barons could build a convention centre / mega-bar and no papers will be allowed out on alcohol harm either presumably? At what point do the best interests of New Zealanders get to trump the best interests of foreign corporates?

The convention economy

Written By: - Date published: 9:36 am, July 29th, 2013 - 14 comments

You know it by now, Key, English, and Joyce have said it often enough – National’s formula for the economy is more mining, selling assets, and convention centres. We’re actually making less money from mining now than 5 years ago. Asset sales have been a predictable failure. But we’ve got 3 new convention centres coming, that’ll bring in the international revenue, eh? Nah.

Even Treasury slammed SkyCity stitch up

Written By: - Date published: 7:43 am, July 18th, 2013 - 58 comments

Yesterday, National released hundreds of pages of documents on the SkyCity deal. They paint the picture of a government that locked itself politically into getting a deal and locked in SkyCity as the only option then was surprised when SkyCIty screwed them for everything it could get. Even the far from bleeding hearts at Treasury said it wasn’t worth the cost.

No one wants Key’s convention center

Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, June 28th, 2013 - 72 comments

Key’s grubby little deal on the Sky City convention center is about as popular as halitosis. Public opinion is against it, and so is the Auckland City Council. But Key will carry on regardless, because he is much too arrogant to back down.

Bad taste of Sky City lingers

Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, February 26th, 2013 - 8 comments

The reaction to the Auditor General’s report on Key’s Sky City deal is lingering in the headlines much longer than Key would like. “Corrupted process”. “Stench”. “No way to run a country”. Key badly misjudged this one.

Re-run: SkyCity’s convention centre would need $10m+ subsidies – MED

Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, February 21st, 2013 - 15 comments

A year ago, I wrote that SkyCity was pursuing the dirty practice of ‘subvention’ – where owners of white elephant infrastructure extort governments for subsidies – for the convention centre. The msm has caught up and is reporting on it now. MED denies there will be any subvention; but Joyce says it’s all on the table. And what about the $10m+ in operating subsidies the centre would need?

A-G reveals details of Nats’ dirty deal with SkyCity

Written By: - Date published: 3:07 pm, February 19th, 2013 - 129 comments

The Auditor-General’s report catalogues a dirty deal hatched between Key’s office and SkyCity execs to give SkyCity more pokies ‘in return for’ a convention centre. It shows the bidding process was a farce and reveals that the whole ‘trade-off’ of pokies for convention centre is a con hatched by SkyCity and the Nats. And there’s a deeper issue.

John Key, the jobs fairy

Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, June 5th, 2012 - 46 comments

Remember when John Key promised 4,000 new jobs from the cycleway and, in fact, a few hundred, short-term, part-time positions were created? Remember when John Key promised 170,000 new jobs and unemployment went up instead? Looks like Key’s being making it up on the pokies-for-convention centre deal too, which would create only a fraction of the jobs promised.

SkyCity’s convention centre would need $10m+ subsidies – MED

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 am, April 22nd, 2012 - 46 comments

Key’s selling our gambling law to SkyCity in return for a convention centre with no government capital contribution. But, MED says, we would be subsidising that convention centre with $10m for starters. Plus marketing costs. And, then, ongoing subsidies both if convention numbers fall short and as a kickback when it does host conventions.

Show us you cards, John

Written By: - Date published: 1:46 pm, April 18th, 2012 - 44 comments

David Shearer’s created an easy way to send John Key a message about selling the law to SkyCity. Here’s your chance to tell John his plan to inflict harm on the community to increase the profit of SkyCity is stupid.