David
PARKER
Spokesperson for Finance

27 March 2013 MEDIA STATEMENT
Ministers were ‘deficient’ in SkyCity deal

The deputy Auditor General has today rebuffed John Key’s claims that he was cleared by her report into the SkyCity convention centre deal, says Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Parker.

“Even before the SkyCity report came out John Key was telling everyone he had been cleared and vindicated.

“But it soon became quite clear in the deputy Auditor-General’s report that there were numerous failings on behalf of the Government. John Key refused to admit it and kept sheeting blame back to officials.

“He can stop doing that now. The deputy Auditor-General Phillippa Smith said today at select committee that her report ‘established deficiencies on the part of both ministers and officials’.

“She also pointedly refused to confirm John Key’s claim that he was vindicated. Her response to that claim was: ‘We have said there were problems and I think the report speaks for itself’.

“That’s bureaucrat-speak for: ‘he was in it up to his neck’.

“The Prime Minister is obstructing scrutiny and avoiding transparency. National refuses to release Treasury and Ministry of Economic Development advice to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the subsequent DPMC briefing note to the Prime Minister. They are suppressing these documents because they show the paper trail leads to John Key’s office.”

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