Comment received.
Martin Legge
January 14, 2013 at 8:57 amSpare a thought for all the Pike River victims and their families.
Maarten Quivooy was the National Safety Manager at Dept of Labour at the time of the Pike River tragedy and during the commission of enquiry that followed which resulted in DOL Management being heavily criticised. As we now know, Quivooy, like a rat off a sinking ship, left the DOL before the Commission made its findings public.
Quivooy grabbed the top Gambling Compliance job at DIA ahead of an incumbent. In light of this it would be interesting to read his CV, his references from DOL and hear his responses given to the DIA selection panel – “Maarten can you please outline your achievements with the DOL”
Quivooy is all hat and no cowboy!!!
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Related Posts and Comments:
30.12.12 Internal Affairs is a whole other planet #whitecollarcrime #DIArorts
18.11.12 Martin Legge: DIA audit criticism #pokierorts #coverup
13.11.12 Martin Legge replies to Sunday Star-Times story #DIA #coverup
26.10.12 Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) – CULPABLE #pokierorts
3.10.12 DScene: Russell Garbutt seeks DIA file to Crown Law #PokieRorts
27.8.12 DIA’s political cover-up of TTCF and ORFU rorts
12.8.12 DIA reshuffle: new investigation teams, money laundering, criticism
25.7.12 Martin Legge backgrounds TTCF (pokie trust) and Portage and Waitakere Licensing Trusts #DIA
15.7.12 Martin Legge responds to media stories on Murray Acklin, TTCF and DIA
26.5.12 DIA media release
22.4.12 DIA, OAG, TTCF and Otago Rugby swim below the line
Use the search box at right to find more items connected to professional rugby, pokie rorts, TTCF, ORFU and DCC.
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
A pause for thought.
### ODT Online Thu, 24 Jan 2013
Otago pokie spend rises
By Hamish McNeilly
Southern gamblers have pumped almost $50 million into pokies over the past year – the equivalent of $160 for every man, woman and child living in Otago and Southland. Figures from the Department of Internal Affairs show non-casino pokie spend in the South was $48.6 million for the year ending September 2012. Dunedin punters led the way, gambling $18.5 million over the same period.
Read more
That’s _some_ people spending a colossal amount of money.
I know one person who goes to the casino occasionally. Of the rest of the people I know well enough to know whether they do or don’t, a few went once and once was enough, others like me preferred re-labeling the stuff in the deep-freeze using guesswork and occasional burst of divine inspiration, and sorting the big tin of screws, washers, nuts and bolts into separate tins.
As a matter of interest, how many of you / people you know, go to the casino? The fewer, the higher the “spend” to make “the equivalent of $160 for every man, woman and child living in Otago and Southland”.
Yer well, you should only be able to play them in the casino.
Helping a rely do stuff I saw people lined up at the pub, doors opened and straight to the machines.
Scary shit.
There’s a few obscure gaming rooms attached to pubs, barely visible from the street – people can while away many hours and dollars with no-one seeing….day in day out.
Yes, Elizabeth, the Law Courts has one.
Another at Black Dog Cafe Bar and Restaurant, Princes St; and a gaming room in Moray Pl uphill side of Temple Gallery; also a gaming room at the Gardens shopping centre. But hey the list is quite long once you start looking around in a city this size. Or the Casino can pick you up in its shuttle and take you home after. Ye shall not want… except when you lose.
This is a very special Hello to our smarmy-crook prime minister and minister of tourism, the one and only f***wit Mr John Key.
Ministry tries to fob off Parliament on SkyCity pokies riddle
http://m.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/8228526/Ministry-takes-aim-over-pokies-riddle
DIA farce continues – forget to collar the Old Boy crims defrauding New Zealand communities for millions and millions of dollars; crunch the guys with tats. WHAT IS ORGANISED CRIME ? Answer: Pokie rorts and associated money laundering across the nation. Who? Example: TTCF, ORFU, and friends. Who let’s it happen? Department of Internal Affairs.
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### ODT Online Fri, 1 Feb 2013
Gang member sentenced over trust rort
A Dunedin gang member on the periphery of the misappropriation of trust funds to buy cannabis has been sentenced to community detention and community work. Jason Renata Kapa, 43, employed, was one of several Mongrel Mob Notorious gang members charged over the dishonest conversion by We Against Violence Trust trustees of $20,000 for an unauthorised purpose.
Read more
The sad reality in NZ now is the fact that the Dunedin Mongrel Mob figure out a way to rip off $20k from a Govt agency without a shotgun or violence and for their trouble they get the full attention of Parliament which inevitably leads to the full force of the NZ Police.
Meanwhile back at DIA HQ, the tough talking Heads of Gambling compliance, Maarten Quivooy, Paul James, Colin McDonald and Debbie Despard remain unconcerned about whats been going on within TTCF and right under their noses and with witnesses – the unlawful payments to the commercial interests of the Portage and Waitakere Licensing trusts resulting in loss of $1.2 million to the West Auckland Community, the fake document supplied to DIA by TTCF trustees to fudge it, the $7 million fleeced out of 3 South Auckland bars and given to ORFU and Harness racing when TTCF knew those groups had an interest in those bars.
Better than that, the TTCF trustees didn’t even have to front for an interview on any of this and Debbie Despard is recently recorded as saying it’s now pleasing to see TTCF have improved their performance.
Can I suggest to the Dunedin Mongrel Mob that next time they rip off pokie money – far less fuss!!!
Since persons at DIA follow this blog, all we can say is – “your day will come”
Not only did the mob guy get investigated, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced – and so he should – but his photo was in the paper along with the report of his “vile crime”, a very pale crime compared with scale of misdeeds of which the DIA has been informed IN DETAIL over and over again.
What about a sense of goddamn proportion, DIA?
What about the prudent allocation of limited resources (time, personnel, courts) to take out social smallpox ahead of pouring resources into a cure for ingrown toenails?
The trouble is Elizabeth that when that day comes it will be past the statute of limitations or it will be a historical case, or like the Blue Chip case just abandoned it will too expensive for aggrieved parties to pursue as a self funded civil case. Today’s report on National Radio indicated that the fines of a few tens of thousands of dollars and 75 hours community service will be the end of this matter that involved the loss to depositors of tens of millions of dollars (which must have ended up in someone’s bank account because money doesn’t just disappear. The current risk/return profile of this kind of activity indicates to a cold blooded risk taker that it’s just worth doing – That’s the problem – And as a result more will do it.
That reminds me of the Stakeholders’ Mayor Dave Cull. His most recent example of avoiding accountability:
Mr Cull ruled he was not prepared to ”waste council money finding out what might have happened three years ago”.
This from Rob Hamlin’s post “when that day comes it will be past the statute of limitations” raises serious questions about what investigation are carried out – since there is strong evidence that some of higher impact are not – and why those are prioritised. It’s hard to imagine a Mongrel Mob member having social or political influence that would encourage individuals >> the organsisation as a whole, to drop him down the priority list over and over till the risk of “inconvenient” action was over because of the amount of time that had elapsed. Conspiracy theory? If it walks like a duck perhaps it’s a disabled spaniel [quoth Occam, sending himself up].
I think they call it institutionalised theft (DIA). However, there is still time left. And that time, Maarten Quivooy, is better spent not taking trips abroad at taxpayer expense. Conscience, do you have one Maarten?
Further to Rob’s comment:
### RNZ News Updated at 9:35 am today
Blue Chip liquidators end legal action
Liquidators for the Blue Chip group of companies are dropping legal action against the failed company’s former directors and auditors. Blue Chip collapsed in 2008, owing 2000+ investors more than $84 million. One of the liquidators, Jeff Meltzer, said the company has suspended a $40 million claim on behalf of investors. He said the liquidators had been unable to obtain the funding needed for what could have been a lengthy legal process. Mr Meltzer said the scale and complexity of the legal proceedings had proved too challenging for potential funders of the action. He said creditors will be advised as soon as possible about what will happen next with the liquidation.
RNZ News Link
The targeting of the Mongrel Mob is obviously easier pickings to show the authorities are ‘getting on top of crime’. A few years ago we had a Mongrel Mob family a few doors down. No problem at all for the neighbourhood.
If they became more political, and targeted white collar criminals, instead of other poor people, they might even become more respectable in the eyes of many. Baader/Meinhof gang… with tats.
In my book, white collar criminals are far worse. Far more insidious and dangerous.
Yes, one look at his photo and all “right-thinking people” will feel safe, These People can’t get away with it. Would anyone bet that the expensively suited pokie rorters don’t feel that he’s in a totally different category from their respectable selves? No fellow-feeling, no “there but for the grace of God (a.k.a. the DIA’s helpful sense of priorities) go I”.
Come on. You are denying them their golf outings, expensive clubs, fancy cars, big yachts, expansive houses, ‘escorts’ and blow. Why should it be their problem if you lose your investments, your life savings, your hopes and your home? …Most of these greedy and ultra-wealthy individuals can affect positions of influence and even DIA bureaucrats – like many of those who poison the councils of this city – have high paid jobs they can no longer afford to lose. It’s a great and useful tool for keeping your minions in line – keep them beyond their means, preferably in debt, owing something to somebody. It is well known that several individuals here would not think twice about ‘change managing’ your job security over a glass of brandy at Dunedin Club.
### stuff.co.nz Last updated 05:00 06/02/2013
Ministry stone-walling on SkyCity – Labour
By Catherine Harris
A Parliamentary select committee has expressed disquiet over a lack of information from the former Ministry of Economic Development (MBIE), particularly regarding its dealings with SkyCity on the planned national convention centre. After conducting its annual review of the MED, the commerce select committee chastised the former ministry – now part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment – for failing to fully answer many of its questions. At one point the committee was forced to remind the ministry it expected “full and frank responses by departments to its questions,” and called officials back for an unusual second hearing . Labour party committee members, who are in the minority on the committee, made a separate statement that there seemed to be an “unfortunate pattern of denial of legitimate information” within the ministry.
Read more
### ODT Online Thu, 7 Feb 2013
Report on ORFU confirmed
By Hamish McNeilly
The Department of Internal Affairs has confirmed the existence of a commissioned report on the Otago Rugby Football Union’s involvement with pokies, but continues to withhold the material. The Otago Daily Times revealed last year the union was involved in buying three Auckland bars, with the intention of setting up its own pokie trust.[...]At the time of finalising the union’s recovery package, New Zealand Rugby Union officials confirmed there were ”potential issues relating to funds obtained from gaming trusts”.
Read more
What’s this then, working up to doing them like a dinner, or finding ways to “manage” the problems until they fit into the “not worth getting worked up about so we had a full and frank conversation with them and can report that some misunderstandings that had resulted in inappropriate methodologies have been clarified, and we do not perceive need for punitive follow-through risking disproportionate damage ” category?
Can’t name and shame ORFU, or NZRU, for covering up fraud, nope. That would be heresy. DIA would have to get honest. Public Service is all about whitewash and corruption in that quarter, don’t forget (salaries and perks to retain).
The latest:
“The Otago Daily Times revealed last year the union was involved in buying three Auckland bars, with the intention of setting up its own pokie trust.”
Revealed it, did they indeed….. They certainly did not reveal it to me or to any of the many people who frequent this site for the purposes of accessing information that is not subject to ‘editorial confidentiality’. This information had been in the public area for some considerable time before this supposed ‘revelation’. They particularly did not reveal it to Martin Legge who was the prime public source of the information and who has been shouting about it for years, or to the DIA who have been sitting on it for yonks.
All you can say in response is, like the recent boat picture and (mis)-captioning; ‘What a whoppa that one is!’
One can only assume that it is another sub-editing oversight, and that there was no intent to deceive the public by inferring that McPravda were the original pubic source of this information via acts of investigative journalism.
The English language is a precision instrument and should be used as such by any professional media outlet. One can only ‘reveal’ something that has not been ‘revealed’ already by someone else. If one publishes something subsequently to a related content build up in other public arenas that are outside of one’s editorial control, then the correct verb to describe the action is ‘reported’.
Or “For revealed read admitted throughout”.
I wonder just how much Hamish McNeilly is allowed to work on this story? He has, for a very long time, been in a number of conversations with Martin Legge, who I understand gave him a great deal of information. He knows exactly what has been going on and who is involved. BUT, the editorial staff and/or ownership of the ODT have so far, prevented the ODT reporting exactly what is going on in their own back yard. It has been left to the reporters in an Auckland based newspaper – the Sunday Star Times – to spill the major beans.
I for one, challenge the ODT to stop their blind support for those in our community who have been involved in these pokie fund rorts, and start to become fearless in their pursuit of truth and transparency. By not doing so they are condoning the very actions of those fraudsters who pose as pillars of our community.
The claim might be (today) that ODT published on ORFU before Martin Legge went public – I haven’t googled it.
ODT’s Hamish McNeilly has been on the case a long time and is still digging – journalists going for “the facts” right now is a good thing!
Here is a hint for Hamish – try running a story based on where the ORFU got the money to buy the bars in Auckland, and try and see where the necessary cash appears in the Annual published and audited accounts of the ORFU. Tracking down the cash flows is central to the story Hamish.
### Stuff Online Last updated 15:52 19/02/2013
SkyCity report slates Government ministers
By Kate Chapman and Vernon Small
SkyCity remains interested in continuing negotiations over a $350 million convention centre despite a report slating officials and ministers. SkyCity chief executive Nigel Morrison confirmed the position today. “We remain willing to invest up to $350 million to develop, own and operate the New Zealand International Convention Centre, provided acceptable returns can be delivered on the total project,’’ Morrison said in a statement.
The comment came after the report by Deputy Auditor-General Phillippa Smith into the negotiations was released. The report raised concerns about the lack of documentation and analysis for the procurement process. There was too much focus on the politics and commercial interest and not enough on proper process, Smith’s report said. “Although decisions were made on the merits of the different proposals, we do not consider that the evaluation process was transparent or even handed.” Meetings with between the Government and SkyCity were “materially different in quantity and kind” to those between the Government and other parties.
Read more
Of interest to promoters of the waterfront hotel* for Dunedin, given Mr Key PM’s insistence on gambling and conferencing as a neat-oh marriage in heaven for the visitor industry. It’s like the Old Boy suits have got together around the country and ‘shared an idea’. Amazing, the lack of originality and sudden preponderance. Catering to base instincts.
Not sure where Dunedin Casino fits yet. Perhaps it doesn’t.
*(how to change that plan annotation saying ‘Banquet hall’ to ‘Gaming lounge’, yip overlooking harbour and railway shunting yards)
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### ODT Online Wed, 27 Feb 2013
SkyCity in frame for Queenstown convention centre
SkyCity Entertainment will be the preferred operator for Queenstown’s proposed convention centre in plans released today. Queenstown Lakes Mayor Vanessa van Uden said in a statement the project, yet to get approval, would be taken forward by a consortium led by Ngai Tahu Property Limited and Morrison & Co. She also announced the consortium had chosen SkyCity Entertainment Group as its preferred operator. SkyCity took full ownership of the Queenstown casino in December, buying the other 40% previously held by co-owner Skyline Enterprises Ltd.
Read more
Gaming lounges don’t require a view, indeed they require a lack of view, clocks and other reminders of the outside world. Perfect choice for a room overlooking a shunting yard!
Hmm, the architects for the proposed Lakes convention centre are Populous – same people who designed that dreadful cowshed down near the waterfront here in Dunedin, the one that can be converted for elephants.
No surprise, linkages linkages. It’s at Eiontown, after all.
This is due to that piece of filth John Key laying in the vision of tourism (exercising the low wage second tier economy) and More white collar corruption for New Zealand, while ‘the people’ can’t put breakfast and lunch on the table for the children, and our rivers are sewers, without clean-up… for ever and ever, amen.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/queenstown-lakes/247571/convention-centre-plans-excite
“The centre which would be financially neutral to ratepayers” Yeah Right. just like Dunedin’s great white elephant, with the same people backing both?
Oh yep, Key is in the picture. Fortuitous timing for the booster PM to be ‘south’, pushing RMA changes in the hotbed of regional development that is soon to include SkyCity, with more casino gambling to follow (wait for it).
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### ODT Online Sat, 2 Mar 2013
PM backs centre
By Christina McDonald and James Beech
With the Government reviewing the Resource Management Act, Prime Minister John Key said it was hoped the planning and approval process for new developments, such as the proposed Queenstown convention centre, would be made quicker.
He said as Tourism Minister he was ”acutely aware” of the importance of a centre to Queenstown and saw it as part of a national strategy linked with Auckland and Christchurch centres.
Read more
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Hahaha – no mention of the (cough) ‘aggressive’ conference centre trade in Dunedin. Local boys been passed by. Eion and Michael are up to tricks. All they’ll back in Dunedin is a shabby hotel by railway shunting yards – while the real money is made at the Lakes. As we all predicted… Dunedin won’t be clipping any ticket, much – why isn’t Betterways Advisory Ltd ‘advising’ its client to sink its capital into the resort town ? That’s the $100m question.
### ODT Online Wed, 6 Mar 2013
Dunne warns Key of ticking ‘time-bomb’
By Adam Bennett – New Zealand Herald
Government support partner Peter Dunne has sent a “time-bomb warning” to Prime Minister John Key, saying his “cut through” approach over the SkyCity convention centre and Hobbit law changes risks becoming a major problem. The United Future Leader’s vote may prove crucial to passing Gambling Act changes required to secure the Government’s international convention centre deal with SkyCity. -APNZ
Read more
Here’s a story about Maarten Quivooy who did a runner from DOL to DIA………………..
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### tvnz.co.nz Published: 7:25PM updated 20:08 Wednesday April 10, 2013
Apology to Pike River families as report cites ‘systemic failures’
Source: ONE News
The Department of Labour’s role in the lead up to the deadly Pike River explosion in 2010 was “dysfunctional and ineffectual”, a report has found. The damning verdict is in the findings and recommendations of the independent investigation into the Pike River tragedy, along with an apology to the families of the 29 Pike River miners who died in the explosion. The report was commissioned by Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment chief executive David Smol.
The investigation conducted by David Shanks and Jane Mears found there “were actions or (more often) inactions” on the part of officials at the Department of Labour (DOL) and the former Ministry of Economic Development (MED), which is now part of MBIE, that may have contributed to the tragedy. “But they did not find evidence of carelessness, incompetence or breach of policy on the part of any staff including managers that would merit an employment investigation,” states the report.
The investigators found that the DOL’s performance as a health and safety regulator was “dysfunctional and ineffectual” at Pike River. “In using workplace fatality statistics to set its strategic health and safety agenda, it omitted to consider the potential for catastrophic events,” the report said. They also state that the MED’s assessment and monitoring of Pike’s mining permit was discharged in a “light-handed and perfunctory way”. “Health and safety considerations were explicitly excluded from the overall assessment to be undertaken,” the report said.
Read more + Video (1:26)
### ODT Online Thu, 11 Apr 2013
Angry Pike River families slam report
Source: APNZ
Upset families of the 29 men killed at Pike River “cannot accept” findings of a report that absolves government employees of any blame for the 2010 tragedy.
The report was highly critical of both departments and prompted an apology to the families – but their spokesman, Bernie Monk, called it hollow and said there should be accountability. [...] Mr Monk said it was refreshing to hear the departments admit fault, but it was not enough.
Officials from the former government departments, now part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, met the families in Greymouth to discuss the report. It said that despite a “light-handed and perfunctory” approach to health and safety regulation at the mine, an employment investigation was not warranted. Ministry chief executive David Smol said the breadth of failures outlined in the report was “sobering,” and apologised to families of the dead men.
Read more
Hey, wasn’t Mr Quivooy of DIA fame a former ‘head honcho’ of the Department of Labour overseeing mine inspections? He hopped out ‘lickety split’ when the Pike River disaster happened. Say no more.
You are right Calvin, Quivooy replaced Mike Hill, the former head of Gambling Compliance at a time when DIA restructured and upgraded Hill’s job.
Apparently, Mike Hill was not happy with missing out and it also raised eyebrows amongst junior DIA staff. How someone with no knowledge of the gambling sector suddenly scores the top job, only months after a national tragedy and a commission of enquiry into his old job.
Love to see Quivooy’s CV and whether he was required to undergo the same tests as the other candidates.
As night follows day.
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### ODT Online Thu, 25 Apr 2013
Government may contribute to centre: PM
By Rosie Manins
The Government may contribute funding to a proposed convention centre in Queenstown, Prime Minister John Key says. Speaking at Trenz in Auckland yesterday, Mr Key – Minister for Tourism – said government funding would not be ruled out. He had yet to be asked for money towards the proposed facility, but expected such a request to be forthcoming ”from everything I hear every time I’m down there [Queenstown]”.
Read more
Mr Key talks about convention centres in Auckland (already part of a government rort) and Christchurch, as well as the Queenstown proposal. No mention of Dunedin’s new ‘swanky’ Town Hall Conference Centre. I wonder why? Could it be that Dunedin just doesn’t rate (except of course its citizens). Besides, no-one yet has done any meaningful research into just where all these conferences are to originate from. Again, I wonder why.