We've all had a few days to reflect on this and it just looks more and more remarkable to me. Blind leading the blind.
They call John Key "the smiling assassin"? Hello, it's Winston.
If anyone else had called in an Aussie who gives recommendations to flog off half our venues in the greatest land grab since the treaty of Waitangi while suggesting giving the keys to the till to the Aussie TABCorp - this report would go down like a ton of bricks.
Would we take the ride if it was someone from the green party standing up with this exact same message?
For example, Gareth Hughes says we are going to cut the number of venues in half, and give up the huge amount of intellectual capital that's gone into the Kiwi IT and infrastructure side of things, the jobs there, and let the show be run from Aussie.
Same message, different messenger.
It could be a masterstroke from Labour greens. Get Mr Trusted to sell them the worst deal ever and they'll buy it.
For the short term Winston just needs next election's votes.
Will he even run in the next election?
Perhaps WP doesn't even know he's the fall guy. There could be some other political trade off?? NZfirst done very well so far.
It peeves me no end the NZRB corporate bureaucracy and there is stupid money lost there but as much as you will no doubt disagree, I think John Allen did put losses on the forecast before they happened, with a plan to lift the financial nose pretty much about right now. Instead of being patient a bit longer and sticking to the plan, and then deciding once we really know if it's worked as planned, we are jumping the gun just before payday and a nasty little bait-and-switch is going on, and we're all going to get stiffed instead, and racing will end up with no choice next time around.
Too much wagered on a dark horse with this report he needs to hear from the provinces where our tracks and clubs actually are that he's talking about closing down, because that's where the heart of racing is, not Melboune or Petone
No point writing a letter here send it to Winston and National now not later