22 July 2009
 
 
Charity wins double as auction hijack attempt thwarted

The Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust stands to win double from a charity celebrity auction due to the ‘black listing’ of a rogue bidder determined to hijack the event for his own politically motivated ends, North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams revealed today.

“Right wing political blogger Cameron Slater has been raising contributions from his supporters on his political website in order to hijack the event to satisfy his own inflated ego and undermine the good purposes of the charity auction,” Mayor Williams said.

“The auction, in which people can bid to take a one hour ‘flight’ in Flight Experience Takapuna’s state of the art flight simulator with celebrities including Prime Minister John Key and television personalities Susan Wood and Mike McRoberts, is the initiative of an enterprising young North Shore man Lewis Simmons.”

“I am not prepared to see this young man’s good efforts shot down in flames by a rogue bidder out for self promotion at the expense of all of Lewis’ hard work just so that he can make a petty political point opposing the stand I have taken to preserve local democracy in the super city debate.”

“However, Cameron Slater outsmarted himself by promising his contributors on his blogsite on Monday 20 July that he would donate all the money he raised toward his auction bid (around US$ 400 ) to the charity (The Auckland Westpac Helicopter Trust) regardless of whether his bid was successful or not. So by grounding his bid, the Trust gets both his money and that of the successful legitimate bidder – a win / win for the Trust.”

“I hope Cameron Slater is big enough to park his ego in the hangar and accept the ‘black listing’ in the spirit of the auction, which after all is to raise as much money as possible for an essential and worthy cause, saving lives,” Mayor Williams said.

++ENDS

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