Labour MP Trevor Mallard has offered to buy back tickets to
Wellington's Homegrown music festival after being criticised
for making a profit from his online auction sale.
Tickets for the sold-out event on Saturday originally sold
for $95 each, and Mr Mallard sold his four tickets in an
online auction at the weekend for $656 - a $276 profit.
The winner of the auction, Whitireia music student Laura
Signal, 19, picked up the tickets from the MP's Naenae
office, where he came out and gave her the package
personally.
As minister for sport and recreation, Mr Mallard initiated
the Major Events Management Act 2007, which tightened the
rules around on-selling tickets to major events and allowed
scalpers to be fined up to $5000.
In an opinion piece at the time, he wrote: "As for the
proposed ban on scalping tickets for prices more than their
face value - I think most people desperate for a ticket to a
Rugby World Cup game would be frustrated, along with the
event organisers, to see tickets being on-sold at levels
designed only to make huge profits for the seller.''
Today, Mr Mallard disagreed that his sale amounted to
scalping, saying he had intended to go to the concert but had
another engagement.
"I'm quite surprised that people who bought tickets on an
auction, who were really happy on Monday night to get them -
like they were the biggest winners in the world - have got a
bit grumpy since,'' he told APNZ this afternoon.
"I have offered to buy the tickets back from them. I've left
a message with Laura but haven't heard anything back.''
Mr Mallard said he did not know if the on-selling was bad
look.
"I'm just someone who loves New Zealand music, the trouble is
that every now and again I book for stuff that I can't get
to.''
In the past there have been several other sales for event
tickets through Mr Mallard's account, including tickets to
Homegrown last year and in 2009, and two Wellington Sevens'
tickets in 2009.
Homegrown is not covered by the Major Events Management Act,
and organisers said there was little they could do to prevent
people profiteering off their work.
- Amelia Romanos of APNZ and nzherald.co.nz staff
A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.