Earlier this year, New Zealand’s Auditor General Phillippa Smith issued a report on SkyCity’s convention centre deal. Her findings concluded that the local government gave an unfair advantage to the casino operator and Prime Minister John Key claimed that the report vindicated the deal. This week, Smith has come forward to deny these claims.

After months of negotiations that took place behind closed doors, the general public became fed up with the federal government’s secrecy regarding the deal. The Greens enlisted in the Office of the Auditor General to get to the bottom of the deal, determining whether or not SkyCity and Mr Key were acting in an above board manner.

The report took six months to complete, and the Office of the Auditor General concluded that the prime minister had unfairly favoured SkyCity in the tender process. The casino operator was one of the only companies that offered to absorb all of the costs associated with the construction of the convention centre, and only asked for regulatory changes in return.

Since the federal government did not want to spend any money, the contract was granted to SkyCity without taking any other proposals into consideration. Despite these findings, the report stated that there was no evidence proving that the federal government’s decision to negotiate with SkyCity was nfluenced by inappropriate actions.

Immediately after the release of the report, Mr Key stated that the Office of the Auditor General vindicated the deal and that negotiations would resume. This week, Smith states that the prime minister misinterpreted the report. She denies vindicating the deal. After her announcement, Metiria Turei, co-leader of The Greens, issued a press report on the topic. In it, the political party criticised Key’s attempt to spin the news.

It is likely that local politicians request that the deal is disbanded in favour of repeating the tender process properly. “John Key and his Ministers were in no possible way vindicated by this damning report, and must now be answerable for having mislead the people of New Zealand”, the release demands.

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George Anderson
Author George, has over 25+ years’ experience in the Pokies and Casinos industry throughout Australia and New Zealand. Loves to research new Pokies games on the block and follows announcements from top industry providers about their upcoming releases. As soon as a new interesting pokie game appears on his radar, George is there to check it out and give you the scoop before anyone else and tell you about all casino sites where can play the latest game. Before this gig, George worked as Pokie game tester, making him an ideal candidate for this genre of work. He is also an animal lover and a proud owner of three dogs.