Page 533 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 April 1994
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After receiving VicTAB's letter at the end of January, the first action that any competent Minister would have taken was to contact the New South Wales TAB and seek access to its betting pool. We know what New South Wales thought of this approach from the ACT. That State's racing Minister, Chris Downey, said on 16 March that the ACT had been told that it was "unlikely that the New South Wales TAB would recommend any arrangement involving VITAB to its Minister". Mr Berry walked into the Assembly day after day during February and March armed with all of this information, yet he chose to conceal it. Not only did he conceal it, but he also consistently told the Assembly that the arrangement with VITAB was safe and that it was going well.
Mr Berry deliberately misled this Assembly and the people of Canberra by failing to disclose, as he should have done, that this supposedly good deal with VITAB had placed the economic future of the TAB and our racing industry in jeopardy. Consider the Minister's comments to the Assembly this year - and remember that when he made these statements he knew that the agreement with the Victorian superpool would be severed and that New South Wales would not allow ACTTAB access to its pool while the VITAB contract was in place. Mr Berry said on 1 March:
It is safe for the ACT and it returns a profit, so that is good news on both scores.
He said on the same day:
The deal that was offered to us was profitable for the Territory, and is profitable for the Territory ... and it is going very well.
The very next day he told the Assembly:
What has happened is that the ACT Labor Government has struck a good deal ...
He went on to say:
We know a good deal when we see one. What we also did, and what I personally was involved in, was to make sure that the deal was safe with respect to the Territory.
Yet all along Mr Berry knew that this great deal he was promoting had caused ACTTAB to be dumped from the superpool. What he has not told the Assembly is that this good deal, as he calls it, has an escape clause for VITAB but no escape clause for the ACT Government. This means that, if ACTTAB cannot gain access to another betting pool, VITAB may have grounds to sue the ACT for megabucks. Great deal, Mr Berry!
The Minister has blamed VicTAB for doing a backflip on the VITAB contract. The fact is that there were several meetings between the Victorian TAB, ACTTAB and, on at least one occasion, representatives from VITAB. At these meetings the proposed relationship between the three agencies was discussed, but our information is that the Victorian TAB never gave the ACT written approval to go ahead with their contract with VITAB.
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