A guest post from TV and radio current affairs host Mike Hosking

I want to tell you about some people I used to spend a bit of time with.

They were fabulous folk.

They opened their hearts and their wallets to me, and all I had to do was show up at their place a few times a year.

I’m talking about the good people of Sky City Casino.

I miss those guys.

But if you listened to some people, you’d think that Sky City were the worst people on Earth.

It breaks my heart to see their good names being dragged through the mud.

And it makes me wonder what’s really behind all this hostility towards Sky City.

What’s really going on?

I learned a long time ago that the only way to get ahead in this world is to find someone who will pay you to play.

That’s something you won’t hear from the left, of course.

The left in this country hate it when someone’s successful.

So do our so-called experts.

Our so-called experts reckon the Sky City convention centre deal’s a bad one, even if we don’t end up giving more taxpayer money to these good corporate citizens.

They reckon all that gambling’s bad for the community.

But ask yourself this.

How many gambling addiction experts do you see driving late model European sports cars?

How many social workers do you think live in Herne Bay?

Not many.

If any.

Certainly not on my street.

We wouldn’t have them.

Not on my street, and not in my café.

My community is doing pretty nicely, thank you very much.

Nice houses, nice cars, nice clothes.

Gambling hasn’t done us any harm at all.

The only ones suffering are the social workers and addiction experts.

Have you seen the way some of these people dress?

That’s what happens when you buy all your clothes at Kmart.

Let me tell you a valuable lesson I learned many years ago.

Don’t buy your clothes from Kmart.

But it’s a measure of just how out of touch with ordinary people the left of this country have become, that they can’t see opportunity staring them in the face.

If Labour and the Greens were smart, they’d see that Sky City has been doing them a favour.

They’d see that having a big casino sucking money from people who can’t afford it can only work to their advantage.

It works like this.

You lose your money to a casino, and then you’re poor. You can’t pay the rent, you lose your health, then you lose your job.

You’re now broke and unemployed, so you blame the rest of the world and you end up voting for Labour or the Greens.

So the poorer people get, the stronger Labour and the Greens should become.

It’s not rocket science.

Gambling is driving families into poverty, but do Labour and the Greens ever thank the casino for it?

It’s no wonder they do so badly at the polls.

They’re out of touch.

Out of touch with the ordinary voter.

Out of touch with the people of Parnell, St Heliers, and Remuera.

These people understand that Auckland needs a convention centre.

It will be good for the economy, and good for Sky City’s shareholders.

If Andrew Little doesn’t want the taxpayers to help fund the convention centre, then he should pay for it himself.

But Andrew Little isn’t offering to pay for it.

No.

He wants Sky City to foot the bill.

But why should the shareholders of Sky City have to pay the price?

They invested in those shares in good faith, secure in the knowledge that Steven Joyce and John Key would do anything to help their good friends.

Because that’s what friends do.

Of course, Labour and the Greens don’t have many friends.

That’s why they won’t help Sky City.

That’s why they want to shaft the shareholders of Sky City, who invested in good faith.

But that’s just not the Kiwi way.

We look after our friends in this country.

John Key and Steve Joyce understand this.

Labour and the Greens don’t.

Never have.

Never.

Will.