Vic: We ll let public decide on casino papers: minister

AAP General News (Australia)
04-10-2000
Vic: We ll let public decide on casino papers: minister

MELBOURNE, April 10 AAP - The Victorian Government said today it had released documents
on the controversial tendering for a casino in Melbourne to allow the public to decide
whether the process had been carried out appropriately.

Gaming Minister John Pandazopoulos, who said the release of the material fulfilled
an ALP election promise, declined to say whether the 100,000 pages of documents and 94
hours of recorded tapes should result in a royal commission.

He also refused to give his opinion on the content of the documents despite the fact
that the ALP spent years in opposition alleging the tendering had been improper.

"There has been all this concern now for six or so years about what the process was,"

Mr Pandazopoulos told reporters.

"What we're doing today is making the documents available to anyone who wants to see
them, so that they can make a judgment for themselves in relation to whether they're satisfied
that everything was appropriate."

Asked if there was anything in the documents that would warrant an inquiry into the
tendering, Mr Pandazopoulos said: "The commitment that we gave the people of Victoria
was that we would open up those documents - so the media and the public will be able to,
from today, access those documents and make decisions themselves about what the tendering
process was.

"Of course, the government will be discussing this matter further."

The minister said the government was committed to examining all government contracts
and the Audit Commission would report to the government in relation to contract issues.

"I don't want to pre-embed any decision that the Audit Commission might want to make,"

Mr Pandazopoulos said.

According to a media report today, the documents and tape recordings of confidential
bid negotiations reveal that Crown won the battle to control the Melbourne casino after
a last-minute gaming policy shift by the Kennett government.

The Age newspaper, which published a report on the documents today, said the policy
change was vital to Crown, which had told the Casino Control Authority days earlier it
would abandon its bid for the casino unless the government backed down.

"The head of the Crown bid team, Lloyd Williams, told the authority several times that
Crown would walk away from the project unless there was a policy change," the paper said.

"And at one time he urged the authority's chairman John Richards to directly lobby
then premier Jeff Kennett."

The Age said at an August 18 meeting with authority officers, Mr Williams said: "You
need to get John Richards ... or someone to go up and see the premier or treasurer and
you'll get gaming policy fixed."

Four days later, the government agreed to ban venues with more than 105 gaming machines
within a radius of the casino, expanding the profitability of the project, the paper
said.

AAP tsc/er/pjs/bwl @

KEYWORD: CROWN LEAD

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