Transparency New Zealand

Source http://www.committeeforauckland.co.nz/membership/member-organisations

Amongst the individual members are persons who are well represented in the liquor and tourist industries. I hope that the select committee compares submissions  to this list as I would not be at all surprised that  many of these companies will also make individual submissions  in support   .

I have over the years monitored the  connections of the committee for Auckland and find that  many  overlap with the  Auckland CCo’s to the extent that   the directors of the CCos  are well connected to the committee for Auckland members  and some in fact are both.  

One such example is the  CEO of Auckland council Dough Mc Kay  who is a member of the  committee for Auckland  and has historic directorships through the liquor industry  and  is now a director of the BNZ  while still in his  capacity of CEO of  council.

The relationship of   the committee for Auckland  to that of Council and the CCo’s  is  nothing more than incestuous and seeks to  drive their profits  rather than  have their taxes provide  for   Auckland.

In short the committee for Auckland   is at every level privy to the internal decision making of the council , this places them   at the fore front of decision making and the ability to provide  competitive quote and  through its members they  influence council and also parliament.

It is worthy to note that three foreign consulates are members of the committee for Auckland , these three countries China , Australia  and The USA   are also the   homes of the  three major shareholders of sky city  in the top 51%  shareholding shown on the company’s web site  on which  only the top 10 shareholders are listed.22.86% is Australian owned   13.9% Chinese  owned  10.27% American owned    and  4.03 owned by  ACC.

ACC   funds our police as  does LTSA , that is why  injury and   traffic are so well policed. Ironically one thing which is not funded or  Policed well at all is fraud.   As a private investigator I have prepared many fraud files only to find that the police will not prosecute.  We deal with minor traffic offences and speeding   to keep the road toll down but he suicide rate  is greater than the road toll and  drowning put together.  How many suicides come from financial pressure, how many of these are due to the effect of fraud on third party companies who cannot pay their debts due to staff members embezzlement to fund  gambling.   We don’t know the extent of this  because Suicide along with Fraud and corruption is a dirty word and we pretend it doesn’t happen and we don’t keep statistics as to the cause.

The SFO has a limit before it investigates, this limit is  too high for most companies who   will be put out the back door by losses  of $20-50,000

Need and greed are the drivers of Fraud  and staff often mean to “ borrow”  and pay back their  bosses funds  only to find that  lady luck  does not come their way. When discovered these  staff members are typically dealt with in a Cost effective way , dismissal  with a confidentiality agreement  and  an agreement to repay.  So   new employment is found with an unblemished record and  we  rob Peter to pay Paul and so the cycle starts all over again.

Families lose their houses, the innocent are scammed, children are left abandoned, not just in the car parks but in their own homes, by those who either have the habit or believe that gambling is their only chance out of the hole.  All this goes on in the back ground and no one really has a true picture of the effect of gambling on our society

 I was once the officer in charge of gaming in south Auckland in the days  when Housie  was the game of choice.  While the rules were draconian and extremely tight the controls were there to prevent massive loss ( if the game was played legally )   Police in those days investigated fraud  but since then the  police service has  become  a business  .

Should   the   committee decide to approve an expansion of   the sky city convention centre it should only be done if there is a cost benefit analysis done for society.    The true costs are not financial    these need to be identified and accounted for.

Should expansion go ahead funding should be made available from gambling to support those who are the victims of problem gamblers through funding a division of the police tasked specifically with investigation and prosecution of gambling related offences. 

We cannot allow profits to flow overseas while not providing for our own people, we need accurate statistics on suicides and crime which stem from gambling   either directly or indirectly.   An investigation into the  effect of gambling on families and we need to act  on the identified issues and  resolve them.  We need to know what problems exist before we allow expansion.

Sky city , is part of  a powerful lobby group  , the voice of these businesses are heard  but the reality is  that  those in government are there to represent the people  not corporates.  We ask that you  take the action which is best for  the people of  New Zealand  and make decisions with their welfare and wellbeing in mind  .

There should be no Urgency in this matter, the costs on society will  be too great  if you get it wrong.

Thank  you   Grace Haden  www.Transparency.net.nz