Page 1843 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 1 May 1991
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There is also the question of the operation of the Casino Surveillance Authority. Leaving aside the question of its use of a government vehicle - to which attention has been drawn by the Auditor-General - there is the question of the staff costs and the activity that has gone on within that authority for the duration of this Government. We can only speculate as to what on earth they have been doing. Those staff members have been employed to oversight a casino project. What project? What have they been doing? What has the ACT taxpayer got to show for the expenditure of that part of their rates?
I think that the handling by Mr Kaine and his Government of this very important project has been lamentable and careless. It has been done with absolutely no regard for the good of the ACT community. Mr Kaine now tells us, in his mealy-mouthed statement, that he is interested in a project that has a major construction component. What a load of rubbish. He has already said that he is interested in an interim casino and that the temporary casino licence will be issued only to somebody who goes ahead and builds a permanent casino. So, what we are going to see under this Government, under Mr Kaine's so-called leadership, is the establishment of an interim casino with some kind of a promise that maybe at some stage in the future that interim casino may turn into a permanent casino. It is a gross dilution of the original project.
Mr Speaker, it is a project put forward by a Chief Minister who knows that he cannot get a decent proposal through his own Cabinet. It is a proposal that is put forward by Mr Kaine in the full knowledge that Mr Collaery, Dr Kinloch and their cohorts will fight him every inch of the way - because of their warped ideological objection to this kind of a project. Mr Kaine has no credibility whatsoever on this issue. He is unable to discipline his own Government on this issue, and he has cost the ACT community thousands of job opportunities and a great deal of taxpayers' money. Most of all, of course, he has cost his own Government an opportunity to show some sort of intention to build investor confidence in the ACT, and some sort of intention to do something for the building industry and for employment prospects in the ACT. This is a very sad statement indeed, and it is made by a Chief Minister who knows that he cannot rely on his own Government.
Debate (on motion by Mrs Nolan) adjourned.
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