Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This parliament is running a protection racket for ministers and former ministers who have ties to Crown Casino. It is welcome news that the crossbench—and I commend the member for Clark and the member for Mayo—have dragged the government kicking and screaming, together with investigative journalists, to take some steps to refer matters for investigation. But, in the short time that we've had to look at the agency that's going to look at it, what is clear is that ministers won't be caught in that, certainly with respect to the code of conduct.

There are two questions here. One is: have people broken the law? The second is: have ministers and former ministers acted ethically and properly and in accordance with the code of conduct, given that there are reports that ministers are lobbying government departments on behalf of Crown Casino, so that people who are wanted international criminals can bring in their mates to sit at the high-rollers table? Yesterday, we heard very, very clearly in the reports in the papers and on the TV claims that two ministers have been pressuring the Department of Home Affairs to make it easy to bring in high-rolling gamblers even when they've got criminal connections. That in and of itself would be a breach of the code of conduct and potentially corruption. We don't have an independent commission against corruption, a national federal watchdog, to refer those matters to. Those matters may in and of themselves not be crimes but they are certainly wrong. If ministers in this government or in former governments are trying to prevail on public servants to let in people who have criminal connections with the minimum of visa checks just because they've got a bag of cash that will go straight to the Crown bottom line, then we need to know about that. This latest investigation that has been launched under pressure from the government is not about whether ministers have done the right thing. It turns a blind eye to ministers.

Yesterday when presented with this the Prime Minister said there was nothing before him to warrant his attention. If you have claims with some credibility that ministers have been pressuring public servants to allow people to come into this country, even when they are wanted criminals, because it might benefit the bottom line of Crown Casino, I would have thought that would be enough to warrant your attention. There is a ministerial code of conduct. If it meant something, at a minimum the Prime Minister would be asking his ministers—and should be conducting an investigation and getting a briefing from the department— about whether those allegations are true.

The Attorney-General today said there is a basis for referral for investigation. If that's right then there is certainly a basis for inquiring into whether ministers have basically acted as an arm of Crown Casino in pressuring the Department of Home Affairs to let wanted criminals and their associates into this country. The first way we will find that out is by having a federal ICAC—but we don't have one of those. The second way we can find that out, given that Labor and the Liberals seem intent on stopping an inquiry into it, is by the parliament setting up its own inquiry to ask the ministers and the department: 'Who has been pressuring the Department of Home Affairs? Who has been setting up the emergency hotlines that we've been reading about in the papers? Just how high and how close to the top does this connection with Crown Casino go?' These are legitimate questions, and there is no reason to believe it is going to be looked at in this inquiry which, under pressure, the government and the opposition have agreed on. We need to make ministers answer questions. And the Prime Minister needs to answer questions as well. If these allegations are not enough to raise a prima facie case that ministers have done the wrong thing then what is? What do you need to do in this country to get an investigation into you as a minister? If a minister saying, 'I want a fast-track entry into this country for people who have associations with criminal activity and triads,' is not enough, then what is?

I commend the member for Clark and the member for Mayo for raising this. I was the only one in question time in the House of Representatives yesterday who asked the Prime Minister a question about it, and it is becoming increasingly clear why. It is that we know where former ministers go when they leave this place. They go and work for Crown Casino—Labor and Liberal. So we know there is a massive unwillingness from the major parties to ask questions about this.

The Greens in Victoria have found out the hard way what happens when you stand up to the gaming industry. At the last election, the pokies industry spent $1 million, split between the Labor and Liberal parties, to try and keep the Greens from having the balance of power in the Victorian election. And we are seeing again here today the old parties and the gambling industry lining up to stop sunlight from being shone onto this scourge.

Never again will I take a lesson from this government about the need to stop criminals from coming into this country and the need to have tough border protection policies. What we hear from the government is: 'If you're fleeing war and persecution, we'll lock you up. But if you come here with a bag of cash, we'll open the gate for you so you can go and find the drugs and gamble at the casino.' That is the allegation that has been put before the parliament by the member for Clark—and we haven't heard a single denial from the government. This government does not care about border security. This government only cares about beating up on refugees and using border security as a way of winning votes. But if you are someone who has high connections, potentially with criminal organisations in other countries, this government will bend over backwards to fast-track you into this country, drive you through the open gates at the airport, as we have heard, and take you straight to Crown Casino—perhaps via a brothel along the way. And this government will turn a blind eye. And if there are ministers involved then the government doesn't care, and it seems the Labor Party doesn't care.

So: if we want to have an investigation into whether particular officials have done the wrong thing and whether there have been breaches of laws by our agencies, then good! There should be an investigation into whether or not agencies are complying with the law. But the question is: who is going to look into the ministers and the former ministers? Who is going to hold to account the politicians—the ministers who sit here making decisions on behalf of the country and then go and work for Crown Casino? Who is going to look into them? We don't know. We don't know who has done what, but we have heard the allegations being made and we, the parliament and the public, are entitled to an answer.

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