Crispin Hull

The Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, reopened the way for Wayne Berry to return to the Ministry after the next election yesterday, following the tabling of the Pearce report into the Vitab affair.

The report put the bulk of the blame over the Vitab affair on the ACT TAB, and the ACT Government has responded by ordering a Cabinet process for future important decisions by statutory authorities.

Professor Pearce found that the then Sports Minister, Wayne Berry, his advisers and TAB and department officers had all acted in good faith.

He also found that the involvement of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke in VITAB had made ACTTAB feel less need to check out the VITAB principals.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_pearce”

The ACT TAB would be barred from a link with NSW unless it met several conditions, the NSW Minister for Sport, Chris Downy, said yesterday.

“”Any prospect of a link between ACTTAB and NSW is simply not on at this stage,” he said.

The ACT would have to met at least four conditions: to demonstrate that all link with the controversial Vanuatu-based VITAB were severed; controls to ensure ACTTAB did not induce NSW punters away from the NSW TAB; to ensure the interests of surrounding NSW race clubs were protected; and to ensure controls were in place to protect the integrity of the NSW computer system.

The ACT Minister for Sport, David Lamont, said he would met Mr Downy on Tuesday and he was sure the remaining issues could be sorted out and a NSW link put in place.

Mr Downy was responsibly looking after the interests of NSW punters, “”just as I am looking after the interests of ACT punters”.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_nswtab”

The separate ACT Government Service will come into effect on July 1 after legislation was passed in a special sitting of the ACT Legislative Assembly last night.

The special sitting dealt with some 250 amendments to the original Bill. A move by the Opposition to postpone the Bill for more consideration was defeated when the Independents voted with the Government.

The Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, said extra rights and equity would be granted to 14,000 ACT public-sector employees who to date had not been given the status of “”officer” in the Commonwealth service.

The new Act brings virtually all public-sector employees into the service as “”officers”, unlike the Commonwealth which excluded many blue-collar employees and employees in business enterprises.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_actps”

The ACT TAB would go it alone and if necessary undercut other TABs if it could not get a link with NSW, the Minister for Sport, David Lamont, said yesterday.

Mr Lamont was reporting on discussions he had the day before with the NSW Minister for Sport, Chris Downy, and responding to a press statement put out by Mr Downy headed “”NSW TAB door stays shut”.

Mr Lamont said it would be best for the ACT, NSW and the racing industry in both places if a pooling arrangement could be established following Victoria giving notice to the ACT that the ACT could no longer share in its TAB pool which is also linked with South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_nswtab23”

The ACT is the big loser from the VITAB affair, as the statements from the NSW Minister for Sport, Chris Downy, yesterday and last week show.

It shows that the NSW TAB has the ACT over the barrel. It can drive a very hard bargain because the ACT has nowhere else to turn.

The ACT must severe the VITAB link, leaving it open to a claim for damages or ugly retrospective legislation. It is already open to a damages claim from former ACTATB chief executive Philip Neck.

The NSW action shows also how concerned NSW is to cut off any possibility of an off-shore leak of clients of the Australian TAB monopoly, after all VITAB presented a golden opportunity for big NSW punters to use Asian agents to bet through the Vanuatu-based VITAB and get better returns because VITAB’s overheads and government taxes and levies come to about seven per cent of turnover, whereas the Australian equivalent is 15 per cent. The TAB computers would not show the returns in dividends, which would be the same as everywhere else, but they can be paid in other ways.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_nswcomm”

The sacked chief executive of ACT TAB board, Philip Neck, is to take legal action against the ACT Government for unfair dismissal and denounced the gutless way in which he was dismissed.

Mr Neck said yesterday that he had been denied natural justice and was angered that he had found the dismissal notice under his door on his return from interstate on Sunday evening which he described as gutless.

Mr Neck was dismissed on the direction of the Minister for Sport and Deputy Chief Minister, David Lamont, after Mr Lamont had received the Pearce report into the Vitab affair.

Professor 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.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_neck”

The ACT Government has condemned the National Capital Planning Authority’s proposals for the Central National Area as “”very narrow”.

The ACT Minister for Environment, Land and Planning, Bill Wood, said, “”Canberra is also home to 300,000 Australians. The Commonwealth must take into consideration the impacts on the community of its planning proposals”.

The NCPA launched a range of long-term design ideas for the city last Friday. They included the upgrading of Constitution Avenue, the completion of the Triangle at Russell which would become the entry point to the city from the Federal Highway via a road around the back of Mount Ainslie. Parkes Way was to be downgraded. More residential and commercial uses were to be made of land between the city and the lake.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_ncparact”

Some radical ideas for Canberra, including the relocation of the Prime Minister’s Lodge, Government House and the gateway from Sydney, Melbourne and the airport, were unveiled by the National Capital Planning Authority yesterday.

The ideas were presented in the context of the lead up to the centenary of federation and beyond and were looking at the city as a symbol of democracy and nationhood.

None was set in concrete.

However, the ideas have some general themes, the most significant being the redefinition and restatement of the Triangle as a functioning symbol of democracy much as Walter Burley Griffin intended it.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_ncpapaln”

A mortgage tax to cost ACT homebuyers an extra $350 is being considered by the ACT Government, according to the Opposition.

Opposition Leader Kate Carnell called on the Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, yesterday to confirm or deny the new tax.

The ACT is the only state or territory without stamp duty on mortgages and other home and business securities. Elsewhere they add about $350 to the purchase cost of a typical home.

A spokesperson for Ms Follett said, “”The Chief Minister has declined all Budget comment to date, so I don’t think she will be responding on this one either.”
Continue reading “1994_06_june_mortgage”

The professional engineers union in ACT Electricity and Water is to step up its campaign this week against ACTEW coming under the ACT Government Service.

It is part of growing opposition to the structure of the proposed separate ACT service. The service is to start on July 1, if Federal and ACT legislation is passed in time. The plan is meeting resistance from unions, lawyers, the Opposition and Independents.

Government sources say that if the July 1 deadline is missed, it may be postponed a full year because of the Federal legislative program and the ACT election.

The president of the ACT branch of the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia, Col Miller, said yesterday that bringing ACTEW under the public service umbrella would prevent good enterprise bargaining and other efficiencies. Every management-workforce arrangement would be subject to “”precedent paranoia” because the Treasury would worry about its effect throughout the service.
Continue reading “1994_06_june_miller”