Posted by: transparencynz | September 2, 2013

NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE BILL

the following are the  submissions I made agaisnt the bill

I am Grace Haden, I am a licensed private Investigator, Member of the certified fraud examiners association and  former Police Sergeant.  I am currently the director of transparency New Zealand, which is a company concerned with the exposure of corruption in New Zealand.

I am also standing for council as I have uncovered the  inside influence  and control on council which  abducts the resources of councils from  providing services to the residents  to  providing resources  and business for  corporates. This is done through a form of corruption known as State capture.

State capture occurs when the ruling elite and/or powerful businessmen manipulate policy formation and influence the emerging rules of the game (including laws and economic regulations) to their own advantage.

One group which in my honest opinion and based on my research  fits this bill, is  a group which  has been  of high profile in New Zealand  and at the fore front of  legislative reforms  with  regards to Auckland   this is  the committee for  Auckland.

 Membership to this elite organisation is $10,000 per year,   its members include

 AIA NZ                

Northern Commercial

ANZ National Bank

ASB Bank Ltd 

Auckland Airport

Auckland Arts Festival   

Auckland City Mission

Auckland Communities Foundation        

Auckland Council

Auckland DHB

ATEED 

Auckland War Memorial Museum           

AUT University

Beca     

Bank of New Zealand

Boffa Miskell

Chapman Tripp                

Chorus

Richard Didsbury               

Bryan Mogridge                   

Peter Wall                            

The Conference Company

Cooper & Company       

Corban Consultants Ltd                

Counties Manukau DHB

Deloitte

Ernst & Young

Fletcher Building

Fuji Xerox           

Gen-i

IAG NZ Ltd

The ICEhouse

Jasmax                

Jones Lang LaSalle            

Kiwibank               

Kiwi Income Property Management Ltd               

KPMG  

Leighton Contractors     

Manukau Institute of Technology            

Manukau Institute of Technology            

Massey University

McConnell Ltd  

Mighty River Power       

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Minter Ellison Rudd Watts

NZ Bus

NZ Council for Infrastructure

NZ Institute of Architects

Pacific Business Trust

Pete Bossley Architects Ltd

Ports of Auckland

Precinct Properties NZ Ltd

Property Council of NZ

PwC      

Regional Facilities Auckland

Rider Levett Bucknall     

Saatchi & Saatchi NZ

Simpson Grierson           

Sinclair Knight Merz

Sky City     

South Pacific Pictures

Stevenson Group           

Sweeney Vesty               

Todd Property Ltd          

Tuia Group         

Unitec  

University of Auckland

Vodafone

Warehouse Stationery

Watercare

Warren and Mahoney    

Waterfront Auckland    

Westpac NZ Ltd               

WT Partnership                

Anne Blackburn                   

Gavin Cormack                     

Sally Garrett                          

Dame Jenny Gibbs             

David Irving                           

Chris Mace                           

Peter Menzies                     

Consulate General of The United States of America 

Sir Ron Carter    Patron,  

Consulate General of Australia (Austrade)            

Consulate General of The Peoples Republic of China 

The Salvation Army

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

 


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