Sure Bet – Liberal Party donor informed of proposed tax rate cut months before Tasmanian election campaign

Matt Maloney | Examiner & Advocate Newspaper | 19 August 2021

Liberal party donor Federal Group was informed months before this year’s election campaign that the tax rate applied to poker machines in casinos would be cut by more than half in 2023. Right to information documents show Premier Peter Gutwein wrote to the company in December on the proposed tax cut which has now been written into legislation to be debated this year.

Right to Information documents have confirmed Premier Peter Gutwein had released information on proposed tax cuts to Liberal Party donor, the Federal Group, ahead of the last state election.

During the election campaign, the Premier refused on a number of occasions to confirm whether a tax rate had been determined for electronic gaming machines in casinos.

A letter from Mr Gutwein to Federal Group dated December 9, released to Nelson independent MLC Meg Webb under the RTI process, showed a table of the proposed tax rates to be included in future gaming legislation.

The letter named a tax rate of 10.91 for EGMs and an additional community support levy of 3 per cent to apply from July 2023.

The tax rate on EGMs at present is 25.8 per cent.

The letter also detailed the tax rates table games, fully automated table games, and Keno.

Ms Webb said having details on the reduced tax rate for Federal kept secret during the election campaign benefitted him, his party and a major party donor.

“It really has all the hallmarks of lying by omission,” she said.

“At best, he hid from voters a key piece of information about a key policy going into an election.

“The Premier knew months before the election what the tax rate was, and was happy to confirm it with his industry donors, but not happy to confirm it with the Tasmanian people.”

Ms Webb said the Premier had failed to show courage to release the information into the public domain during the campaign and defend it.

She said the government could no longer claim to be open and transparent.

Finance Minister Michael Ferguson said the government did not make a decision on the tax rate until after the election and it was normal process for stakeholders to be informed on proposed policy.

“The tax rates are still subject to the legislation passing,” he said.

Read Meg’s Media Release here

See the RTI decision here