Crispin Hull

The ACT TAB’s move into Vanuatu is a smart deal all right, at least in the short term.

In the long-term, however, it could be the beginning of the end of cosy government monopolies that extract 15 per cent from every mug punter who wanders into a TAB and in the long-term threatens the nice little earner the Australian racing industry gets from the TAB.

Indeed, the real VITAB story is more about inter-state relations and international competitiveness than about shadowy underworld figures making mega-bucks, though the potential is there for the latter, even if there is no hard evidence for it at present.

This is not a story about racing. It is a story about money. To put it into perspective about $9 billion a year goes through Australian TABs. That is a fraction shy of what the Federal Government spends on defence. NSW gets the lion’s share at $3.2 billion and Victoria gets $2.3. The ACT is small fry at $90 million.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_vitab”

Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke and the chief executive of the ACT TAB, Philip Neck, stated that the ACT TAB had won the Vitab contract after competition with other Australian TABs, in apparent conflict with statements from the heads of other TABs.

The heads of all other TABs have said Vitab had not approached them, or in the case of Queensland that Vitab had approached but had been told Queensland TAB was precluded by statute from doing off-shore deals.

Mr Neck’s statement about the competition was given in advice to the Minister for Sport, Wayne Berry.

Mr Hawke’s was made at a media launch of the Vitab deal at which Mr Berry had also praised ACT TAB for winning the Vitab contract ahead of competition.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_vitab26”

No other state or territory TAB was in the running for the Vitab deal at the time negotiations were taking place with the ACTTAB, despite statements by the Minister for Sport, Wayne Berry, and TAB officials suggesting the deal was won in tight competition.

Mr Berry made much of the ACT TAB winning a deal with Vitab against heavy competition from the other Australian TABs and that the ACT had beaten the competition to the great deal.

The fact is that Vitab did not even approach any other TAB but Queensland (another Labor state) and that Queensland was prevented by statute from off-shore contracts.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_vitab25”

This week we learnt that the military bureaucracy wants to put some splendid new buildings at Russell.

Some buildings will be demolished, a couple of 20,000 square metre buildings are to be constructed and some roads are planned.

However, Russell, being in the central national area, should be more than a secure office complex for the military. It is an uncompleted point in Walter Burley Griffin’s Triangle _ the triangle we hear so much about, yet 82 years after it was planned is still not complete.

The apex of the triangle is Capital Hill with the flag pole atop Parliament House. Another point of the triangle is City Hill. The other point is, alas, somewhere in a car park at the back of Russell offices (It is not the Australian-American War Memorial which is south-west of the point.) At present Kings Avenue stops at the roundabout at Parkes Way and Constitution Avenue dribbles out. One turn-off skulks into suburban Campbell and the other twists its way up to Russell.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_triangle”

The ACT Environmental Protection service is to conduct tests on the Tuggeranong Homestead site today for arsenic and other toxic wastes.

A spokeswoman for the Minders of Tuggeranong Homestead said that half a century of sheep dipping on the station had resulted in a build up of arsenic, sulphur, organo-phosphates, dieldrin and diazadip which had leached into areas planned for housing and a park.

The old three-metre dip trench was open and dangerous. The chemical build up and leaching had run off dipped sheep and had come from routine pumping of the trench over the years.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_toxic1”

Independent MLA Helen Szuty demanded yesterday a detailed inquiry into the Vitab affair, listing nine points that should be looked at.

She welcomed the call by the Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, on Friday for an inquiry to clear the air, but said it would have to be a thorough one.

She wanted an inquiry under the Inquiries Act chaired by someone who would be seen to be independent and who had a legal and or financial background.

She indicated that if a government-appointed inquiry were a whitewash or limited inquiry she would press for a more extensive Assembly inquiry.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_tabszut”

The naivety and gullibility of the ACT Government in entering the VITAB deal was exposed last night when the Victorian TAB pulled the rug out.

The ACT signed a contract with VITAB to run a TAB in Vanuatu to attract Asian punters. The theory was that these punters would get access to the TAB super pool, which is all the money bet in Victorian, South Australian, Western Australian, Tasmanian, ACT and Northern Territory TABs _ some $5 billion in turnover.

When Australian punters bet on these TABs on average they get 85 per cent back. The other 15 per cent goes to government, the racing industry and operating costs.

Under the VITAB deal, VITAB would pay 85 per cent to punters and a couple of per cent to the Vanuatu Government and the ACT TAB, leaving between 11 and 13 per cent for its operating costs and profit.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_tabcom”

The High Court yesterday overturned nearly 900 years of legal reasoning.

It overturned what lawyers know as the rule in Rylands v Fletcher.

Gasp. Lawyers and law students will be mortified. It would be like saying to a mathematician that Pythagoras’s theorem is wrong, or to a musician that Beethoven’s Fifth was written by Mozart, or that accountants should revert to single-entry accounting.

The rule, put simply, is if you bring anything dangerous on to your land you are strictly liable for any damage resulting from its escape, even if the escape was not your fault. It has applied to water, chlorine, wild animals and a host of dangerous and unnatural things.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_rylands”

The people of Old Red Hill have a difficult public-relations job. There are 73 residences in an area bounded by Mugga Way, Morseby Street, Arthur Circle, Monaro Crescent and Flinders Way. The blocks are huge, the houses large though some are run down, and the trees are splendid.

It is gracious living from another age.

That, however, is its heritage value. It was designed like that by Walter Burley Griffin and now attracts tourist buses. The people who lived there helped found the nation.

The area is like an endangered species of dwelling-scape. There is nothing quite like it anywhere: easy to kill off; impossible to recreate. But jealousy makes public sympathy scarce.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_redhillb”

Red Hill residents called yesterday for a key Assembly committee to delay its decision on allowing medium-density housing in the old area of the suburb.

They said it would be wrong for the committee to make a finding until the Australian Heritage Commission has determined their nomination of Old Red Hill for entry on the register of the national estate; the ACT Heritage Council has finalised its citation for the Interim Places Register; and Professor Ken Taylor has conducted his study of the area for the National Trust and the University of Canberra.

Old Red Hill is bounded by Mugga Way, Monaro Crescent, Flinders Way and Morseby Street.

The Old Red Hill Preservation Group says medium-density housing in the area will spoil an essential part of Canberra as a planned city.
Continue reading “1994_03_march_redhill”