Well finally it’s official. The NSW inquiry has found that Crown is not fit and proper to operate a casino in Sydney, some four years after I began revealing evidence of serious criminal misconduct at Melbourne’s Crown Casino.
Commissioner Patricia Bergin made the damning ruling after an 18-month inquiry, that exposed shocking misconduct including long-running links with organised crime. This is obviously a remarkable development. But equally important are the implications for Crown’s casinos in Melbourne and Perth. Because surely, it’s self-evident that the company is unfit to continue to operate any casino in Australia.
And to that end I call upon the premiers of Victoria and Western Australia to suspend Crown’s casino licences in their jurisdictions, and to immediately establish commissions of inquiry to get to the bottom of what is now a genuinely national issue. Because if someone is driving drunk, you get them off the road immediately. And if a casino is found to be facilitating organised crime, surely you suspend their operations just as quickly.
I also call on the Prime Minister to revisit my repeated calls in the Federal Parliament for a Royal Commission into the casino industry. These have so far been blocked by both the Government and the Opposition, and the question hangs heavy in the air ‘What have they got to hide?’