Page 2009 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 15 June 1994
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up that issue of the collaboration between the local Liberals and Mr Reynolds, and the implications of that. We have yet to discover the full implications, and I do not think that the Liberals will be coming out and telling us exactly what they did.
This is the same Mr Reynolds who had to cancel VicTAB's contract in Vanuatu after adverse criminal records came to light. Professor Pearce postulates that the cancellation of the VicTAB contract may be related, at least in part, to the privatisation of VicTAB. It was not that in the first place; it was inducements, according to Mr Reynolds. But the position changed from time to time, depending on the political flow. I think that the collaboration between these Liberals will always be remembered as part of this.
At paragraphs 197 and 198 Professor Pearce says:
... ACTTAB is paying a very small sum to VicTAB for access to that pool and it is unlikely that a privatised pool would be prepared to make facilities available on terms as favourable as those which now exist ...
He then draws the conclusion that the cancellation of ACTTAB's contract "may have implications for other TABs currently linked with VicTAB". He goes on to say:
It seems to me that ACTTAB has been the first to feel the chill winds of competition.
What is the cancellation all about? Unfortunately, the professor was constrained and could offer no further comment. The Minister for Racing can. The Financial Review reported on 17 May 1994:
The Victorian Government has not revealed Mr Chung's prison record - yet it has mounted a campaign in the past six months against Mr Chung's only competitor, VITAB Ltd, a company linked with the former Prime Minister, Mr Bob Hawke. The campaign has included leaking what appears to be altered or incomplete police information about VITAB's chief executive, Mr Con McMahon, to Opposition Liberal politicians in the ACT.
He had campaigned against VITAB competing with the Victorian Government's agent in Vanuatu for six months, and it seems that the local Liberals were part of that campaign, to the detriment of our own TAB. Already on the public record is that collusion between the ACT and the Victorian Liberals on this issue. (Extension of time granted) Thank you, members. Police records, inaccurate ones, leaked to the local Liberals by the Victorian Minister added to the mountain of so-called evidence which has subsequently been found to be wrong, but it contributed to the ground swell of accusation and innuendo with which the Liberals swept the Independents towards the no-confidence motion carried against me. Professor Pearce, throughout his report, refutes the evidence provided by the Liberals.
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