Casino deal kept secret
David Killick | Mercury Newspaper | 19 August 2021
Tax rate a ‘gift to party donor’
THE state government secretly negotiated “acceptable” casino tax rates with Federal Group last year but kept the details quiet until after the election, documents released under right to information laws reveal.
Independent MLC Meg Webb on Wednesday produced letters between Peter Gutwein and Federal Group which set out in detail the tax rates which would apply under the new gambling legislation.
The Premier repeatedly refused to reveal the rates in the lead-up to the May 1 state election.
On December 9 last year, Mr Gutwein sent Federal Group a five-page letter spelling out the proposed tax rates, licence fees and other arrangements the government was proposing.
Ms Webb said they were the same rates Liberal Party donors Federal Group and the Tasmanian Hospitality Association asked for in a joint submission to the parliament in 2017. Federal Group wrote back on December 23 saying in part: “I can confirm that we will accept the arrangements outlined in the letter”.
Mr Gutwein replied on January 15, acknowledging the company’s “acceptance and confirmation of the financial arrangements for casino and keno gaming in Tasmania” and promised to consult on any other issues.
The public was told what tax rates would be on July 7.
The new tax rates for casino poker machines will fall from 25.88 per cent to 13.91 per cent of turnover after the passage of legislative reforms. But hotel poker machine tax will rise from 25.88 per cent to 33.91 and club pokies tax rates will rise from 25.88 to 32.91 per cent.
“There’s a real cloud hanging over the integrity of our Premier,” Ms Webb said.
“He has to honestly and openly disclose when he signed off on this special deal for Federal Group on their casino pokies tax rate. If it was four months before the election was called, he certainly then has to explain why that was kept hidden from Tasmanian voters.”
She said although Federal Group was losing its monopoly the difference between the various poker machine tax rates would cost Tasmania’s $250m over the life of the deal.
“It’s a gift to a major party donor,” she said.
Liberal Minister Michael Ferguson said there was nothing untoward. “Ms Webb is deliberately muddying the waters,” he said.
“This is a normal way that policy is developed. We’ve consulted with stakeholders including the THA and the Tasmanian community.
“The fact that Federal Group were provided with early indications of what modelling should suggest, doesn’t take away from the fact that the government did not make any decisions until after the election. It wasn’t a negotiation and Federal Group lose a lot of money as a result of the decision that the government has made on tax rates.”
Read Meg’s Media Release here
See the RTI decision here
