Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke said yesterday that ACT Liberal influence with the Liberal Governments in Victoria was not the reason Victoria had pulled the pin on ACTTAB’s link with the Victorian superpool.
He said there were other reasons, but he would not say what they were in an interview on ABC Radio 2CN.
He also refused to say what his share of the $3.3 million settlement between Vitab and ACTTAB would be.
Mr Hawke is a shareholder in the Vanuatu-based Vitab. It contracted with ACTTAB last year for ACTTAB to receive bets it lodged, to add them to the ACT betting pool which in turn was added to the Victorian pool.
When Victoria cut its link, ACTTAB threatened to cut its link with Vitab so it could restore its link with Victoria. Vitab got an injunction to stop this. ACTTAB settled for $3.3 million, cut the Vitab link and restore the link with Victoria.
Informed sources say Mr Hawke was merely referring to Australian TABs objected to any independent off-shore betting source into the major Australian betting pools. This is because the Australian state governments and overheads cream off 15 per cent of turnover, whereas an off-shore operation might take only 5 per cent and pay more back to punters.
This would break the TAB monopoly which hitherto all states had agreed upon.
It is interesting that Mr Hawke’s comments should come on the day of the COAG meeting where state governments are talking about breaking down state monopolies as de-facto sources of revenue.
The ACT Government had asserted that it was the ACT Opposition’s links with the Victorian Government that had resulted in that Government pulling the pin with the ACT.