So, the government has unveiled its deal with Sky City. National will give them enormous regulatory concessions, including 230 new pokie machines, an extension of their casino licence, and cashless gambling, and in exchange they'll get a flash new convention centre to run their election-night parties in. To add insult to injury, Sky City's profits are guaranteed, with a compensation clause in the event that any future government wishes to tighten gambling regulation.
This is simply corrupt. It is policy for sale, with the price paid by the weakest members of our society. SkyCity will be laughing all the way to the bank, and we'll be left cleaning up their gambling-addict mess for decades to come.
Well, fuck that. The Greens have said they will repeal any compensation deal, leaving Parliament free to regulate gambling again. As for Labour, its birds whistling and tumbleweeds all the way:
However, the leader of the party's potential coalitiion partner, Labour's David Shearer, could not say whether his party would attempt to back out of the deal if it won the next election.
However, they would be combing over the fine print.
And this is why people don't give a shit about Labour anymore. They stand for nothing, they offer nothing. They're just a party of self-aggrandising chickenshits in suits. When it comes to a choice between protecting the poor, and protecting the regulatory-subsidised profit the rich extract from them, they'll be "responsible" and choose the latter. And then they'll arrogantly call us "apathetic" when we refuse to soil ourselves by voting for them...
