Two independents and the Leader of the Opposition, Kate Carnell, issued yesterday a joint statement calling for the immediate release of the report by Professor Dennis Pearce into the Vitab affair.
“”We are concenred that you have permitted your staff or senior bureaucrats to selectively leak information to the media about Professor Pearce’s findings,” they said.
The inquiry was publicly funded and the people of Canberra are entitled to its early release.
The first sitting day following Professor Pearce giving his report to the Government is Budget day and so it is likley to get lesser media coverage if it is made public then.
Professor Dennis Pearce inquired 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 also inquired 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 in April causing him to resign.