The Perfect Backdrop: Why didn't John Key's government secure a distant, easily defended venue - like the exclusive Millbrook Resort pictured here - for the signing ceremony of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement? The choice of Sky City Casino, in the heart of Auckland City, is seen by many as a deliberate provocation to the TPPA's opponents.
IT WAS BARELY SIX MONTHS since the airliners had crashed
into the Twin Towers. In strict secrecy, the intelligence chiefs of the five
major English-speaking countries had flown into Queenstown for a series of discreet
discussions on the global terrorist threat. From the airport they were driven
to Millbrook Resort, a five-star accommodation and leisure complex located
about 15 kilometres from the town. The chiefs came with their own close
protection personnel who operated alongside New Zealand’s Diplomatic Protection
police officers. In case Osama Bin Laden’s reach had extended even as far as
Queenstown, a special hostage rescue team was kept in readiness throughout.
The “Five Eyes” intelligence colloquium of March 2002 would
have passed entirely unnoticed had a sharp-eyed individual not recognised
Robert F. Mueller, the newly appointed Director of the US Federal Bureau of
Investigation, stepping off an unmarked Gulfstream 5 aircraft at Queenstown
Airport. (As the French saboteurs of the Rainbow
Warrior discovered back in 1985, we Kiwis don’t miss much!)
The question that is exercising many New Zealanders minds,
14 years later, is why our Government has decided against staging the signing
ceremony of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) at a venue like the
Millbrook Resort. Hundreds of miles from the country’s main population centres,
and easily defended, it would have provided a breathtakingly beautiful backdrop
to what the Government clearly considers the most important trade treaty New
Zealand has ever helped to negotiate. A remarkable agreement, signed in the
shadow of the Remarkables. What could be better than that!
Or more enjoyable for the trade representatives from the
twelve countries – including the United States and Japan – who are party to the
TPPA? It was, after all, the Millbrook Resort which played host to President
Bill Clinton when he visited New Zealand in 1999. The President was as fulsome
in his praise of its hospitality as his senior spooks were, no doubt,
appreciative of its discretion three years later. Why, then, has Mr Key
rejected the option that promised his esteemed guests an enjoyable and
trouble-free signing ceremony? Why has he decided that the ceremony will,
instead, be held at the Sky City Casino in Auckland?
The cynics among us have hailed the choice of a casino as
the ideal venue for the signing ceremony. If you’re intent on making a wager as
large and potentially catastrophic as the TPPA – where better than a gambling den!
Also, as possibly the best domestic example of what can happen when
transnational corporations and politicians adopt a common view of the future,
the Sky City Casino (and Conference Centre!) has revealed the shape of things
to come in the TPPA’s corporate-friendly Pacific.
But, for those of us who expect our Government to keep the
peace and maintain law and order, the choice of Sky City as the signing
ceremony venue has raised a number of very disturbing questions.
The casino is situated in the heart of downtown Auckland –
the city that, just a few months ago, turned out between 10,000 and 15,000
anti-TPPA protesters. Feeling against the agreement is still running high, and
the Prime Minister’s decision to effectively rub his opponent’s noses in the Government’s
victory has done nothing to calm the situation. Many Aucklanders are now openly
speculating that Mr Key would not be too upset if the inevitable mass protests
against the signing of the TPPA turned into a riot.
Police confirmation that “public order training” – riot
control – has been underway for some time in anticipation of increased “civic
unrest” arising out of the signing decision has been received by opponents of
the TPPA as ultimate proof of the Government’s bad faith.
Their mistrust is understandable given the Government’s
initial flat-out denial that it was hosting the TPPA signing in New Zealand on
4 February. There is also considerable bad feeling about the proximity of the
signing ceremony to Waitangi Day. Fear of the loss of national sovereignty is
the prime motivator of opposition to the TPPA. To organise the signing of the
agreement, in a casino, just 48 hours before the day that celebrates the birth
of the nation, must surely rank as one of this Prime Minister’s most provocative
acts.
It is also alarmingly at odds with the style of political
leadership he has demonstrated to date. Mr Key, like the prime minister with
whom he is most frequently compared, Sir Keith Holyoake, is considered a
consensus-seeker – not a polariser and provocateur. For that we must turn to
Sir Robert Muldoon – the last National Party leader to court riot and disorder
for narrow electoral advantage.
Such cynicism was, perhaps, forgivable in a political leader
staring down the barrel of imminent defeat, but John Key’s love affair with the
electorate continues unabated.
Nothing good can come from this decision, Prime Minister.
Please, go to Millbrook.
This essay was
originally published in The Press of Tuesday,
26 January 2016.
