Australian lawmakers demand independent enquiry into Crown pokie allegations
News on 19 Oct 2017
News on 19 Oct 2017
Perhaps predictably, it has not taken long for well-known Australian anti-gambling lawmakers to wade in on the Crown pokie allegations of tampering which independent MP Andrew Wilkie presented Tuesday in the federal parliament (see previous report).
On Thursday Sen. Nick Xenophon and Green Party leader Richard Di Natale called for an independent enquiry into the affair, claiming the Victorian Commission for Gaming and Liquor Regulation, which has jurisdiction over Crown Resorts, had been accused of complicity in the issue by the whistleblowers.
Federal minister for communications Mitch Fifield reiterated his earlier comment that gambling regulation was a matter for the appropriate state and territory regulators to deal with, and that the Victorian regulator must be allowed to conduct the necessary investigation.
However, Fifield also hedged his political bets by adding that the federal Senate could elect to institute its own enquiry, should there be sufficient political support for such a course, and he pointed out that the federal financial regulator Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) could also investigate any claims of unlawful or unethical activity.
Attempts by Xenophon, Di Natale and Wilkie to persuade fellow lawmakers to vote for a Senate enquiry failed to gain traction Thursday, compelling the trio to postpone the matter until Monday next week.
Both the government and Labor had indicated casinos and venue-based poker machines were purely a state matter, with Labour leader Bill Shorten observing: “…the Senate is not a police force” nor a “state house of parliament”.
Clearly disappointed in their failure to put a Senate vote together, Wilkie and Xenophon told reporters in Canberra that the Labor leader had “gone to jelly” overnight over the Crown misconduct allegations.
