Page 3178 - Week 15 - Thursday, 14 December 1989
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I note that you are afraid to debate with me the details of the coalition's casino policy before the Assembly meets on 5 December.
Please find enclosed a white feather which comprises my comment on your pusillanimity -
not cowardice -
I note that your letter does not attempt in any way to clarify the clear and fundamental division between your party and the Liberal Party on the future of the casino project.
Given that major elements of the business community appear to have accepted from the Liberals assurances that the project will proceed, I can only assume that you have agreed to some kind of deal on the matter. I think that you owe it to the community to reveal that arrangement prior to the meeting of your Party on 4 December.
In your letter you referred to a newspaper report which claimed that I had spoken to one of the groups involved in the casino tendering process.
The government and each Minister in the government has scrupulously observed the standards which it established to ensure probity in the tendering process. For your information the circumstances surrounding the newspaper report are as follows:
On the morning of Thursday, 30 November, there was the scheduled meeting between the BWIU and AFCC to discuss, and have the government endorse, a building industry industrial agreement. AFCC was represented by Mr Phil Garling of Civil and Civic.
I asked Mr Garling what was the AFCC view of the lack of commitment by the coalition to the casino project. Mr Garling said the AFCC was quite relaxed. He said that they had had boardroom lunches with both the Residents Rally Party and the Liberal Party in recent weeks.
When I produced transcripts of news reports which proved that there was no agreement, and that there was much uncertainty about the future of the project under a coalition government, Mr Garling was quite startled.
Mr Garling himself drew particular attention to the words -
and this is quoting the news report -
"They've agreed to put off the final decision until they know what the tenders offer". He was
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