Yesterday John Key announced that the government was supporting the development of an international convention centre in Auckland. The centre would bring jobs and money to Auckland, which is a good thing. But there's a price: SkyCity wanted gambling laws relaxed to protect its investment, and Key (a former professional gambler, though in a different sort of casino) has decided to give it to them.
As with the Hobbit, this is a blatant case of policy for sale. Apparently all you have to do to change the law in this country is dangle (or threaten) a large enough amount of money in front of John Key. Which is great for large, exploitative multinational corporations - but not so great for ordinary kiwis, who are effectively financially locked out of our own government.
But there's a dirtier aspect to this as well, namely the possibility of undue influence exerted through political donations. Auckland Mayor Len Brown is right behind the project - possibly because SkyCity gave him $15,000 for his election campaign last year. As for National, SkyCity used to be a regular donor, giving them $60,000 in 2005. They haven't made more recent large donations, and thanks to National's "reform" which raised the disclosure threshold to $30,000, we'll never know if there's a payback for Key's support.
This illustrates perfectly why we need proper electoral disclosure laws in our country: so we can see who is bribing our politicians. With controversial decisions like this, we need to know. Sadly, both our major parties have a strong interest in ensuring that we can't.
