Headline: Casino deal more voodoo economics from High Priest of Spin
Steven Joyce’s claim that National’s deal with SkyCity is about jobs and growth has been exposed by officials as a victory of spin over substance, says David Clark, Labour’s Economic Development spokesperson.
“The fine print of this week’s document dump must have made ugly reading for Steven Joyce. A senior official from the Department of Internal Affairs noted he knows of only one published empirical study that looks carefully at whether casinos cause long term growth. And despite being penned by someone sympathetic to casinos, the report found “no evidence that casinos cause economic growth in the long term.”
“The 3% rise in SkyCity shares immediately after the deal was announced shows its shareholders clearly believed they’d hit the jackpot. Shareholders had long since taken for granted that a deal would be done, but once they saw just how much the casino company had secured in the negotiations they knew they were on to a winner.
“It is easy to see why Treasury had strong concerns that the private benefits to SkyCity will exceed public benefits to New Zealanders.
“This backroom deal is just the latest in a string of half-baked economic development proposals. The Cycle Way, SkyCity, mining National Parks – none of National’s big ideas stack up. They promised 170,000 jobs in Budget 2010 and fell 113,000 short. The next Budget they promised 170,000 jobs again and failed to deliver.
“After nearly five years of National unemployment is 41,000 higher than when they took office, real median wages are lower, and power bills continue to skyrocket.
“Our major trading partners have continued to grow and commodity prices have been strong, but New Zealand has consistently underperformed. Is it really any wonder this National government continues to carry the ‘distinction’ of having the worst economic record of any government in the last fifty years?
“One thing is clear – Steven Joyce has spent too long rehearsing his lines in the mirror instead of developing a credible jobs plan,” says David Clark.
—
