Page 936 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 26 July 1989
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The volume of expenditure in Canberra is a clear indication of that fact. Indeed, Mr Jensen made the point that we already have casinos in Canberra. You can go to any licensed club and there you are, with the poker machines, the draw poker machines, the TAB betting facilities, and Sky Channel. We have those and that has been an important part of my thinking.
If people want to gamble, it is a free society. Nevertheless, a casino is a particular kind of place. The only value that you will find in a casino is that of winning or losing money; money is all. It is a further refinement of what we already have in extensive gambling facilities. Because of what a casino is, for me, the question of a casino in Canberra is, first of all, a moral and a social issue.
If it cannot be justified on moral and social grounds, a casino ought not to proceed. To this matter I have given a great deal of thought over the last two months. Prior to that, prior to my appointment to this select committee, I had not given it a great deal of thought one way or the other. But in the last two months I have listened, I have observed, and I have considered and pondered the matter most deeply. As I will explain, as the report explains and as my statement to that report explains, I have concluded that, while many people may regret it, the mores of Canberra society are such that a casino is a compatible development. If it is justifiable in those terms, with those prime considerations, what other factors ought to be considered?
The one factor which was of the most concern to me was that of criminality and corruption. I had heard the allegations. Almost all of the letters that I received against the casino expressed the view that they did not want a casino because it would bring crime and would encourage corruption.
Many of those letters mentioned the Connor report. So the very first thing I did, as I set out on this path, was to read the Connor report. What a fascinating, interesting, intriguing report it was. I commend it to you. Therefore, I was most keen to have Mr Connor, formerly Mr Justice Connor, come and sit in that room there and talk to the committee and answer our questions. I noted his anxieties and I still do. He makes the point that, in the main, his views were expressed following his examination in the American context of casinos. He indicated that he still has grave concerns about casinos. His views have not particularly changed, though he did note that he would be less apprehensive now, in the light of what has happened in Australia in the last six or seven years, because that experience has shown that casinos can operate, they do operate, without criminality, without corruption.
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