By: Larry Williams | Thursday, April 19, 2012 6:50 PM

SkyCity

The mirk continues around the SkyCity deal.

Well, that's according to some. There are accusations of dodgy, dirty, back room deals between the Government and SkyCity. 

Labour and the Greens are all over this and the conspiracy theories are coming fast.

The criticism is not just from the left to be fair; some on the right are concerned over how this deal has been put together too. The right’s concern is mainly around process and changing the law, not about the extra pokie machines.

There is all this talk about the PM intervening and lobbying and SkyCity getting close to Cabinet and guess what - all that is probably true. That's actually what happens in politics. Companies lobby.

I don't think it will come as surprise that the Council has been active on this also. This is forgotten in all of this. The Council desperately want this convention centre and the fact that the ratepayer won't have to pay for it is pure gold for the Council. And for the ratepayer too.

Winston Peters is a hoot. He's pointing to the donation that John Banks got at the last mayoral election as if there’s some sort of corruption going on, but conveniently ignores Len Brown’s donation from SkyCity.

Like yesterday when he highlighted National’s donation in 2005, but never mentioned Labour’s donation. Maybe he's a bit peeved that NZ First never got one. Peters is so funny these days, I'm getting a lot of enjoyment out of him. I'm not sure he's the right one to be talking about donations.

 

Crafar

The decision on the Crafar farm sale to the Chinese looks set for tomorrow.

The sale will proceed. I think that's a good bet.

This will give opposition parties another chance to beat up on the Government. They know there is widespread opposition to the sale so it’s open season.

I have never had any issue with the sale for a bunch of reasons - the key one being that free trade deals are actually meant to be reciprocal. Our companies are making huge strides investing in China and other countries. If you want to close down China, you might as well close up shop.

I don't see the sale of 16 farms as selling out at all.

Certainly no more than the thousands of hectares that have been sold to foreigners over the last decade or so, with not a word of opposition.

 

Norway

The right-wing fanatic Anders Behring Breivik on trial for massacring 77 people in Norway says he wants either freedom or death, calling the country's prison terms "pathetic" and arguing for the return of capital punishment, which was last used to execute Nazi collaborators after World War II.

He's right about two things.

The first is that if he is sentenced to the maximum of just 21 years - that is pathetic.

Secondly, he's not going to get his freedom, so he should be granted his wish.