Page 532 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 April 1994
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He has engaged in a deliberate campaign of misinformation. The Opposition will show today, beyond all reasonable doubt, that when Mr Berry misled this Assembly he knew, or at the very least should have known, exactly what he was doing. We will produce documentary evidence to support our claims.
Mr Berry deliberately concealed vital information about the ACT's expulsion from the superpool - a decision that could ultimately cost this Government and the people of Canberra millions of dollars. The Minister attempted to use a letter from VITAB as categorical evidence that it would not give inducements to attract Australian punters. This letter is deceptive and not even worth the paper it is written on, as we will demonstrate shortly. Mr Berry also said that ACTTAB won the VITAB contract in cutthroat competition with other States. It did not. He said that VITAB's directors were Dan Kolomanski, Con McMahon and Michael Dowd. They were not and are not. He said that VITAB was a public company and was Australian owned and registered. It was not and is not. He said that the bona fides of the VITAB directors and shareholders had been checked thoroughly. They were not and, if they had been, the ACT should never have signed this contract.
Mr Berry did not stop at misleading the Assembly. He also broke the law - a law he introduced himself. Under rules he set, Mr Berry was required to table the ministerial direction he gave the TAB board to sign the agreement with VITAB. He did not table it and he still has not. All this was part of a deliberate campaign to create the impression that the agreement with VITAB was safe and good for the Territory, when he knew perfectly well that it was not.
Madam Speaker, ACTTAB has been linked for a number of years to a betting pool controlled by Victoria. This pool is Australia's largest, worth more than $4 billion a year. We are linked to a pool to give punters access to better returns and better odds. If the Territory's TAB were ever forced to go it alone, there would be no incentive for medium to large punters to stay with our TAB. These punters, who make up 10 per cent or more of ACTTAB's $90m turnover, would leave in droves. Mr Berry himself told the Assembly on 3 March this year:
That is of great advantage to Australian punters and to TABs because large betting pools draw more punters.
On 31 January this year the Victorian TAB wrote to ACTTAB and terminated the agreement which gave ACTTAB access to the superpool. This was a serious blow to the ACT. What caused Victoria to expel ACTTAB from the lucrative superpool? Victorian sports Minister Tom Reynolds told the Canberra Times on 17 March that the primary reason was the VITAB contract. Mr Reynolds also said that the dropping of ACTTAB had absolutely nothing to do with the privatisation of the Victorian TAB. In fact, the decision to privatise was taken after ACTTAB was notified that its link to the superpool would finish at the end of July. The fact is that the ACT was kicked out of the superpool because of the VITAB contract.
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