The Victorian Greens have called for the launch of a judicial inquiry into the role current and former State Government MPs and staffers have played in the Crown crisis.
For two decades the Government has provided the gambling industry with sweet deals and leniency while the gambling industry has sat safely in the Government’s pockets.
The inquiry would investigate:
- The adequacy of state legislation and regulations in preventing undue influence and criminal activity in the gambling industry
- The conduct of The Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulations and their role in allowing this activity to proliferate
- The revolving door of relationships between State Government MPs, staffers, and officials and the gambling industry, and how it may have given rise to undue influence and improper conduct
- The impact of political donations on the laws and regulation that govern gambling operators; specifically the unprecedented donations to the State Labor Party prior to the 2018 state election from gambling industry
Leader of the Victorian Greens, Samantha Ratnam, said the Government has allowed the gambling industry to act with impunity for too long and needs to act now to prevent these giants from taking further advantage of their longstanding free pass.
She added that the impact of political donations from the gambling industry were a part of this fiasco and needed to be investigated as part of the inquiry.
Last year the Victorian Labor Party received half a million dollars from the gambling industry ahead of the 2018 state election in an unprecedented move.
And the question needs to be asked: what was promised in return?
As stated by Leader of the Victorian Greens, Samantha Ratnam MLC:
“An inquiry needs to be set up immediately to investigate the Government’s role in the Crown crisis.
“Crown may be a high roller in the gambling industry but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t play by the same rules as everyone else.
“The inquiry also needs to look into dodgy donations between the gambling industry and the Labor and Liberal parties to find out how those relationships have had undue influence on our state’s laws and regulations around gambling.
“Sweet deals and leniency from the Government have allowed this corruption to fester for far too long and it’s high time Dan Andrews took action to prevent it from ever happening again.”
