Page 4915 - Week 13 - Thursday, 2 November 2017
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regulator. It is a fact that they have bought even more poker machines from another club in Canberra.
It is a fact that there is no strategy for rural lease purchases in Canberra. It is a fact that the $10 million purchase of the Huntly estate was done on one valuation and probably exceeded the $20 million cap. It is a fact that the Woden Tradies sold out for $16 million. It is a fact that Andrew Barr said he was confused about the block and section, and there was an error in the block and section, at Glebe Park; but we now know, from a letter from the director-general, that in actual fact it was the right block and section and the casino did put a proposal to the government for that block and section. It is a fact that the government was planning to sell a car park to the Tradies for years. I believe that tender was geared towards the Tradies. Who else would build a licensed club next to another licensed club? The rough value of the windfall to the CFMEU is in the vicinity of $700,000.
It is interesting that people would come into this place with a straight face and say that they do not take pokie money anymore, that they do not take money from the Labor clubs. What a sham. At the same time that Mr Ramsay is complaining about gaming revenue, since 2001 the Labor Party has received $7.979 million in cash and gifts in kind and receipts from the Labor Club and also the 1973 Foundation. Let us not forget that the 1973 Foundation was set up to, in effect, put pokie money in, turn it into property investments and then spit it out so that it is clean again. It is a rort.
Transparency International goes to great lengths in describing forms of corruption. Some of the relevant ones might be beneficial ownership, conflicts of interest, collusion, petty corruption, political corruption and much more. When you have an organisation win a questionable tender and the government gives that organisation special treatment to then buy a property from them, we will unashamedly call that out.
We will also unashamedly call out the fact that that valuation was 17 months out of date. The whole thing was kept secret and it was only discovered because of an anonymous tip-off I got in a car park one day, after which I did a title search. That is the only reason that the Canberra community knows that the government paid $3.9 million for the CFMEU-Tradies site in Dickson. The only reason we know is that I got an anonymous tip-off and then did a title search. If that had not happened, there is a fair chance this would all be flying under the radar; there is a fair chance nobody would know about it, because that is how they operate. They are so apathetic, they are so complacent and they are so arrogant that they think they can get away with these rorts.
We are going to keep calling them out. That is our job. Mr Barr and others can accuse us of wasting time; they can say that this is unparliamentary; they can say that they have a great agenda, but not one of them actually addressed the facts. Not one of them spoke about whether the Tradies had been in direct negotiations with the government in 2010. Not one of them spoke about the valuation that was 17 months old. Not one of them spoke about the valuation that was based on vacant possession, not 42 months. Not one of them spoke about the Labor Club acquiring more poker machines. Not one of them spoke about the 1973 Foundation.
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