Am seeking Carnell comment and will phone a few pars if she calls.
The ACT TAB settled its dispute with Vitab for $3.3 million last night and signed a contract to restore the pooling link with the Victorian superpool.
The terms of the three-year Victorian contract are similar to before the Vitab fiasco. It is expected that the injunction against ACTTAB from severing its computer link to Vitab in Vanuatu will be lifted in the Federal Court today and the pooling arrangement with Victoria will begin on Monday, the day the Victorian TAB becomes the privatised TAB Corp.
The Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Sport, David Lamont, said the Vitab deal would not result in any extra impost on ACT residents. The money will come out of a Treasury reserve and have to be paid back by ACTTAB at commercial rates.
Existing distributions would continue. The Vitab payments would come from efficiencies and extra business.
ACTTAB signed a contract with the Vanuatu-based Vitab last October under which ACTTAB accepted bets lodged with Vitab by computer from Vanuatu and added them to the ACT pool.
Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke is a shareholder in Vitab, holding about 11 per cent. He could expect to get that percentage of the payout after costs. Racing sources say that Vitab made about $1.5 million in profit since it started taking bets in January.
Shortly after Vitab lodged its first bet, Victoria gave six months’ notice to the ACT that it would exclude the ACT from the Victorian superpool, which includes South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, because of the Vitab link. The large pool gave more consistent and often better dividends.
It was feared that Vitab could entice Australian punters away from Australian TABs through agents in Asia because it could offer higher dividends because its government take was lower. Vitab said it would not take bets from Australia.
When ACTTAB threatened to cut the link with Vitab on July 31, Vitab got an injunction preventing it. Victoria then went ahead and severed the link with the ACT, sending ACT dividends into a tizz causing punters to bet elsewhere. Turnover in the past week has been down some 40 to 60 per cent.
Mr Lamont said last night, “”Without question we will get those punters back once they see the dividends return to normal.”
He paid tribute to Bruce Glanvill, the chairman of the ACTTAB board and the board members for their part in negotiating the contracts.
Under the Victorian arrangement, ACTTAB will pay 0.19 per cent of turnover, a touch over the previous arrangement at 0.175, but the new rate will fall to 0.15 if turnover rises to a specified rate.
Mr Lamont said the deal was much more specific and offered greater security than the previous arrangement which could have been cut on six months’ notice.
The Leader of the Opposition, Kate Carnell, said ultimately the ACT taxpayer would foot the bill for the Vitab fiasco.
“”ACTTAB made a loss in the past two years; they have no capacity to repay the money,” she said. “”Besides ACTTAB was fully government-owned and any money that went to paying Vitab must come from the Government share or the racing industry share.”
She called for a full disclose of costs and expenses. Was the ACT going to pay Vitab’s costs, she asked.
Mr Lamont said that when it became clear that NSW was going to impose unacceptable conditions on the ACT, he had opened negotiations with Victoria.
He said the reason ACTTAB did not just pull the pin on Vitab without warning was that such an action would have exposed the ACT to greater damages, and the court could have ordered the link restored in any event.
The Government was committed to a TAB owned by the people of Canberra that supported the racing industry.
The Vitab affair cost the former Minister for Sport, Wayne Berry his job. On April 12, the Legislative Assembly passed vote of no confidence against him, for misleading the Assembly by saying all was well even though he knew Victoria had given notice to terminate access to the superpool. However, in June Professor Dennis Pearce, after an inquiry into the affair said Mr Berry had done nothing with respect to entering into the contract which should result in him having to resign as Minister.
In response to concerns expressed by the president of the Canberra Racing Club, Bill Bartley, (subs” plse check Jackie Fuller piece for exact title and splice some of her material in here if necessary) Mr Lamont said the racing club had been paid $14.6 million from government coffers over the past six financial years. There had been a temporary set-back because of Vitab. The club could not rely solely on government money. “”I have not seen a detailed strategy or marketing plan from the club,” he said. “”I would expect the club to prepare one so it can show that it is maximising returns on the capital provided from TAB funds.
No other sporting body got such treatment.