Wednesday, June 13, 2012



A necessary inquiry

The Auditor-General will investigate John Key's corrupt SkyCity deal. Good. What we know of the bid "process" is appalling, and John Key's dirty fingerprints are all over it. According to his own official paper trail, Key "directed officials to stop work on the business case development for the ICEC and to wait for the proposal from Sky City" [PDF]. He then approached Sky City directly, offering to prostitute New Zealand law if they built the thing. And once he'd sealed the deal, he restarted the bid process [PDF] to provide an illusion of process and fairness - despite the fact that he'd already picked a winner.

Stopping this sort of cronyism is exactly why we have an Auditor-General. I look forward to the eventual report and finding of malfeasance. Meanwhile, I'm also looking forward to some journalists asking Key the obvious question: will he resign if the Auditor-General finds he behaved inappropriately?