Mr Hawke nursing a sore throat complained about Canberra’s cold was greeted by a gaggle of cameras between the lift and the 15 metres to the hearing room and said anything he had to say he would say to the inquiry.
Asked about the Australian cricket captaincy, he thought that Allan Border had made the right decision.
He then entered the inquiry room where he gave evidence in private.
Professor Dennis Pearce is inquiring into the contract with the Vanuatu-based Vitab and ACTTAB under which ACTTAB gave computer access to the multi-state super-pool and other services in return for a percentage of turnover, enabling Vitab to run phone and other betting on Australian races. He is also inquiring into why the Victorian TAB terminated it super-pool arrangements with the ACT.
The contract led to a successful Assembly no-confidence motion against Sports Minister Wayne Berry last month, causing him to resign.
Mr Hawke is a shareholder in Vitab and his involvement with the Vitab proposal was cited by ACTTAB chief executive Philip Neck as one of the reasons he was enthusiastic about the deal.
The ACT Liberal Opposition in the Assembly and in a submission to the inquiry has questioned why the ACTTAB entered the deal without checking the directors of Vitab, Dan Kolomanski, Cornelius McMahon and Michael Dowd and Vitab middle man Peter Bartholomew. The Liberals have asserted connections between Mr Bartholomew and SP bookmaking. This has been denied by the Vitab directors.
The Liberals have asserted that the Vitab arrangements made it possible for large Australian punters to bet in Vanuatu for higher returns than at Australian TABs, taking away business from them.
Vitab says it pursued only the Asian market.
Mr Berry’s private secretary, Sue Robinson, gave further evidence yesterday saying that at a meeting between Mr Berry and then department head Jeff Townsend, Mr Berry had given documents on the Vitab proposal to Mr Townsend to check out the deal thoroughly.
“”There was no detail because it was assumed he would know how to do it,” she said. Her notes had said “”investigate Vitab”. There had been no limitations on what would or would not be done.
However, Mr Townsend has given evidence and tendered a bound notebook saying he was to instigate checks with the ACT Law Office and the Treasury with no mention of probity checks on the Vitab principals.
Last week, Ms Robinson said, “”At the very outset Wayne talked to the ACt TAB about having to have the checks done and that they woudl have to be full checks, sensitive checks, and since we did not have the shareholders of principals names we assumed that the ACT TAB would have followed that all up.”
Public evidence is now concluded. Professor Pearce will hear private evidence from Victorian TAB officials next week and is expected to report within a month or so.