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- 26 September 2002
Oasis Liverpool Development
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Page: 5525
Mr BROGDEN: My question without notice is to the Premier. Will he confirm that on Tuesday this week the Minister for Mineral Resources, and Minister for Fisheries, Eddie Obeid, read over the phone to the Hon. Peter Breen a declaration from former Oasis chairman, Gary McIntyre, which nominates Mr Arthur Coorey as the person who sought a $1 million bribe to the Australian Labor Party [ALP] in exchange for assistance with the Oasis project?
Mr CARR: First of all, if anyone hears an allegation like that, they have a statutory obligation to take it straight to the Independent Commission Against Corruption [ICAC].
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Ku-ring-gai to order. I call the honourable member for Lachlan to order.
Mr CARR: That is what the Leader of the Opposition should do.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Lachlan to order for the second time.
Mr CARR: The position of this Government has been clear with this project.
Mr Tink: Eight Ministers involved!
Mr CARR: "Eight Ministers involved," says the honourable member for Epping. Eight Ministers involved in what?
Mr Tink: The Oasis project.
Mr CARR: The Government said, "No poker machines. No land. No licence." The club, seeking 600 to 1,000 poker machines, did not proceed because the Government said, "We won't give you what you want." The club has not proceeded. By the way, we were criticised for not allowing it to proceed and we were praised by opponents of the club, to wit, the Fairfield City Champion, which said on 28 February 2001:
The Premier is wary of the Oasis. Why?
It quotes me on 20 February 2001:
There's a warning here for us.
Mr O'Farrell: Point of order. My point of order is relevance. The quotes were from the Minister for Mineral Resources, and Minister for Fisheries, Eddie Obeid, to the Hon. Peter Breen about potential corruption in this State.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order.
Mr CARR: The paper said:
There's a warning here for us. Anyone at any time can come to the Government and say we've got a brilliant new development, a great development. They can say, for example its got state of the art retail in it, its got community facilities in it, but say to the Government it can only go ahead if you give us 300, 600, 1,000 poker machines.
The Fairfield City Champion ran a quote from the Premier saying that-in other words, canning the proposition-and the opponents of the Oasis project said:
Congratulations Bob Carr on your courageous decision not to lift the freeze on poker machines.
That was the position taken by this Government. There was no-one in Government arguing to me that that position ought to be reversed. Indeed, Roger Wilkins, the Director-General of the Cabinet Office, gave me advice on how that office would have been required to overturn or reverse that decision. He wrote to me:
The Government introduced a freeze on additional gaming machines in registered clubs from 27 March 2000.
The freeze continued until 2 April 2002, when the Gaming Machines Act 2001 commenced.
The ... Act ... establishes a cap ... [on] ... gaming machines in NSW; and ... a cap of 450 gaming machines for any new club.
He said:
The club could not install any more than 450 gaming machines at the Oasis premises unless the Parliament passed legislation to exempt the Club from the cap of 450 gaming machines.
Let me again assure the House and the public that there was never, within the Government, support for, consideration of, or preparation towards, a special Act of Parliament to do the only thing that would have allowed this development to go ahead, namely, amend the gaming machines legislation. I presume it would have been called the "Gaming Machines Special Exemption (Oasis Club) Act". That was never on. They were never going to get an exemption from that policy. I am delighted that the Leader of the Opposition has asked me this question. It has given me an opportunity to demonstrate yet again, but in more detail, that we are responsible for Oasis not proceeding-not because it did not have meritorious elements, but because it would have required a special exemption, that could be conferred only by special legislation, from a statewide freeze on poker machine numbers. Sir, that was never on.
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