Cassy O'Connor MP | Greens Leader
The next installment of the Tasmanian Hospitality Association’s quid pro quo has been unveiled by their Liberal partners in government.
The tax arrangement announced is a toxic sweetheart deal that fails to disguise the social and economic disadvantage the Hodgman Government plans to entrench until 2043.
While the clear winner from this deal is the THA and their pokies baron members, the losers will, of course, be the Tasmanian people.
This is a better tax deal than the THA even asked for when they presented their original proposal to Parliamentary Inquiry into Gaming in 2017. The same proposal that became the Liberals’ election policy.
The Community Service Levy increase is almost meaningless compared with the profound damage pokies cause to communities, and likely will do for the next 20 years.
Millions leeched from Tasmania’s most disadvantaged will flow back to the pokies barons every year for the next two decades. The THA memberships' large, and largely hidden, donations to the Liberals have clearly paid off.
While we don’t know what the casino tax rate will be or what the ‘negotiations’ are around, we know all too well that Federal Group have a long history of bullying governments to get what they want.
What is certain, however, is that it’s disadvantaged communities who will continue to lose under this deal.