Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move the following motion:

That the House of Representatives calls on the Australian Government to establish a Royal Commission to inquire into and report on the Australian casino industry, with particular reference to:

(1) allegations of Crown Casino's links to organised domestic and foreign crime, money laundering, tampering with poker machines, domestic violence and drug trafficking, including but not limited to:

  (a) the allegations concerning Crown, raised by the Member for Denison in the House of Representatives on 18 October 2017;

  (b) the Member for Clark's referral of the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation, and Victoria Police, to the Victorian Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission on 24 July 2019;

  (c) reports by Nine newspapers and 60 Minutes in July 2019 concerning alleged criminal activity involving Crown;

  (d) the Member for Clark's referral of the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation to the Victorian Ombudsman on 13 August 2019;

  (e) the Member for Clark's referral of Crown Perth to the Premier of Western Australia on 19 September 2019;

  (f) the allegations of criminal activity provided by a driver formerly associated with Crown revealed by the Member for Clark in the House of Representatives on 30 July 2019, and again during a media event yesterday, including the failure to process inbound and outbound flights and passengers;

  (g) the evidence of money laundering at Crown revealed by the ABC and the Member for Clark today;

  (h) the response to these allegations, including the possibility of criminality, by relevant state and federal agencies including but not limited to the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation, Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police, Border Force and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre;

  (i) the conduct of people associated directly with Crown, including the possibility of criminality and corruption; and

  (j) the conduct of serving and former politicians and party officials especially relevant to Crown, including the possibility of criminality or corruption.

(2) the performance of relevant federal agencies regarding the operation of Australian casinos generally including but not limited to the Australian Federal Police, Border Force and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.

(3) the conduct of Australian casino owners, board members and staff generally;

(4) the conduct of serving and former politicians and party officials regarding Australian casinos generally; and

(5) any related matters.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Clark from moving the following motion immediately—

That the House of Representatives calls on the Australian Government to establish a Royal Commission to inquire into and report on the Australian casino industry, with particular reference to:

(1) allegations of Crown Casino's links to organised domestic and foreign crime, money laundering, tampering with poker machines, domestic violence and drug trafficking, including but not limited to:

  (a) the allegations concerning Crown, raised by the Member for Denison in the House of Representatives on 18 October 2017;

  (b) the Member for Clark's referral of the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation, and Victoria Police, to the Victorian Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission on 24 July 2019;

  (c) reports by Nine newspapers and 60 Minutes in July 2019 concerning alleged criminal activity involving Crown;

  (d) the Member for Clark's referral of the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation to the Victorian Ombudsman on 13 August 2019;

  (e) the Member for Clark's referral of Crown Perth to the Premier of Western Australia on 19 September 2019;

  (f) the allegations of criminal activity provided by a driver formerly associated with Crown revealed by the Member for Clark in the House of Representatives on 30 July 2019, and again during a media event yesterday, including the failure to process inbound and outbound flights and passengers;

  (g) the evidence of money laundering at Crown revealed by the ABC and the Member for Clark today;

  (h) the response to these allegations, including the possibility of criminality, by relevant state and federal agencies including but not limited to the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation, Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police, Border Force and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre;

  (i) the conduct of people associated directly with Crown, including the possibility of criminality and corruption; and

  (j) the conduct of serving and former politicians and party officials especially relevant to Crown, including the possibility of criminality or corruption.

(2) the performance of relevant federal agencies regarding the operation of Australian casinos generally including but not limited to the Australian Federal Police, Border Force and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre.

(3) the conduct of Australian casino owners, board members and staff generally;

(4) the conduct of serving and former politicians and party officials regarding Australian casinos generally; and

(5) any related matters.

There is an urgent need to debate this motion and for this parliament to decide whether or not the government should be obliged to establish a royal commission into Crown. I find it remarkable that the government has denied leave for this matter to be properly explored. I would have thought it would be in the government's very best interests to have a debate about this motion and establish a royal commission, as this motion would oblige.

This morning, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and I both released extraordinary vision of serious criminal activity inside Melbourne's Crown casino. In isolation, the vision this morning of brazen money laundering inside the Suncity junket room at Crown in Melbourne is truly shocking. But in its political context it's even more disturbing. There's an urgent need to suspend standing orders and address this. The ABC and I only possess this vision because a number of Victorian government gambling investigators decided they had had enough of all the lies and cover-ups. These investigators say they've been forced to watch on as crimes are routinely committed inside Crown, only for Crown to then publicly deny everything. There is an urgent need for this parliament to now act. Speaking of watching on and those Crown inspectors, it's important to point out that the vision released this morning was filmed by Crown's own security cameras. So don't believe anyone at Crown when they say they don't know what's going on.

Speaker, you'd recall that in 2017, in this very place, I revealed evidence of poker machine tampering and other serious offences at Crown. In response, Crown took out full-page ads to lie to the Australian people and to financial markets, claiming they'd done no wrong. But, while Crown's response was dishonest, the response from the major parties was pathetic. To the amazement of the Australian people, Labor and the coalition continued to run their protection racket for Crown and chose not to investigate the claims; hence there is an urgent need to investigate the claims now.

Of course, in time Crown were found guilty by the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation of machine tampering, proving that Crown had lied when they claimed they hadn't tampered with their poker machines. Since then we have had whistleblowers and many more allegations, including recently when the Nine group produced their extraordinary series in their newspapers and on 60 Minutes highlighting the international crime networks that treat Melbourne's Crown casino like a lawless washing machine for unexplained fortunes. But again Crown denied everything and once again bought full-page ads in newspapers around the country, proving that the company has more money than sense, or, perhaps more accurately, more money than any sense of decency.

At the same time as those ads appeared, the major parties kidded themselves again into believing that, if they only waited long enough, the public would get bored and move on. But the public didn't get bored and they haven't moved on—and neither have the whistleblowers. In fact, that list of whistleblowers has grown to include the Crown Casino driver who came forward to provide firsthand evidence, which I, along with the Reason Party's Fiona Patten MLC, released yesterday. This driver provided firsthand accounts of foreign nationals illegally entering the country, as well as allegations of widespread drug use, domestic violence and illegal prostitution. But, faced with these new allegations, Crown lied again yesterday, with a Crown spokesman saying: 'Crown rejects all these claims. If anyone has any allegation or evidence of unlawful conduct, then they should contact the relevant authorities.'

So who are these 'relevant authorities'? Well, Victoria Police for one, but, as the driver says in the video, Victoria Police routinely fail to enforce Victoria's laws inside the casino. The other relevant authority is the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation, and, as all of Australia now knows, not even the VCGLR's own inspectors trust the VCGLR to investigate the crimes of Crown. If anyone has any doubt about that fact—about the VCGLR's failure to investigate—we've now got the pictures today to prove it, and they're up on the ABC and on my website. As for the chairman of the VCGLR, here is what Mr Ross Kennedy confidently told The Age about his organisation over the weekend:

The VCGLR … emphatically rejects the unfounded attacks on its competency and any suggestion it is 'not doing its job …

Perhaps Mr Kennedy should talk to his own inspectors, who have risked so much professionally and personally in order to inform the Australian people that the VCGLR is absolutely not doing its job.

Make no mistake: today's vote on suspending standing orders in the first instance is not just about one casino in one Australian city; it's a vote about corruption and criminality that no-one can deny any longer. I say to the members of Labor and the coalition: there are only two possible explanations for what has happened so far. The first explanation is that you've known all along about these crimes at Crown but you didn't care. If that's true, then that is truly shameful. The second explanation is that you didn't know about any of it, and, if that is the case, there is only one way you can vote on suspending standing orders in the first instance, and that is in favour of suspending standing orders and then in favour of a royal commission into Australia's gambling industry.

Make no mistake: if anyone in this House votes no, the Australian people will see us as a part of the problem and not a part of the solution. It will be all the proof that the Australian people need, to know for sure that the major parties secretly approve of these appalling crimes and this appalling corruption.

Crown isn't just Melbourne's casino. It's also Prime Minister Scott Morrison's casino, as all this has happened under his watch and the watch of his political party. This is also opposition leader Anthony Albanese's casino, as Labor hasn't exactly covered itself in glory today either. It's Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews's casino, as he has long had the power to step in and clean up Crown but to date has failed to do so. And then we have the politicians who have traded their lives in politics for a cushy life funded by Crown—their pay packets, we now know, indirectly funded by crime—like former Liberal senator Helen Coonan. It's also former Labor senator Stephen Conroy's casino. It's former Labor operative Karl Bitar's casino. And, if you want to go back a little, you'd have to conclude that this is also Jeff Kennett's casino.

I've been asked on a number of occasions why I have pursued this matter—why an Independent from Hobart is so concerned about a casino in Melbourne. Well, it's not just because many of my constituents visit Crown when they visit the mainland, though that is an important factor. More important is how the crisis at Crown reflects a deep crisis in our democracy and how, for years now, politicians from the major parties have allowed Crown to corrupt our political system.

I ask: how can the Australian people trust any of us to make laws if we allow laws to be broken over and over again with no consequences for Crown? How can the Australian people have faith in our Border Force when our borders are so easily ignored by Crown? How can the Australian people have faith in the Australian Federal Police when they seem to treat crimes differently when they're committed in or by Crown? How can the Australian people have faith in Victoria Police when serving Victorian police officers refer to Crown as 'the Vatican'? And how can the Australian people have faith in us politicians if any of us vote against this royal commission and, in doing so, allow the criminal crisis of Crown to continue?

This is not about shutting Crown down. This is about cleaning Crown up. There is an urgent need to suspend standing orders, and I implore each and every politician in this parliament to vote today to suspend standing orders and then to vote in favour of a royal commission into the Australian casino industry.

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