Cassy O'Connor MP | Greens Leader and Teasury spokesperson
In Parliament today, Treasurer Peter Gutwein made it clear he is prepared to do Federal Hotels' bidding and extend the destructive gambling monopoly deal beyond 2018.
The Treasurer is using MONA’s desire to establish a boutique, high-rollers casino as a Trojan horse to extend the Federal monopoly deal which was negotiated and signed in secret back in 2003.
Mr Gutwein is talking about the five year rolling extension of the monopoly deal to 2023 as if it’s a given, when the Deed makes it clear any extension is at the discretion of the Minister.
He is effectively pretending that Federals' has the government over a barrel if it decides to support MONA’s proposal.
The Treasurer should know that Parliament can vary the Deed at any time.
There is no valid sovereign risk argument here when Federal Hotels has reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in profit over the life of the Deed, mostly off the back of low income Tasmanians.
Yet again, we’re seeing an old party bend over backwards to cater to Federal, just as Labor did back in 2003.
Clearly, political donations have paid off for Federal, who have donated $77 000 to Tasmanian Labor since 2002 and $72 000 to the Liberals.
The Liberals have no mandate to extend the monopoly deal which has caused such misery and pain in our community. If they believe it should be extended, they need to put it to the people in the lead up to the next state election.