So Politicians from BOTH sides of Politics voted AGAINST a parliamentary enquiry into Crown Casino's wealthy foreign gamblers arriving by private plane?
MP Andrew Wilkie UNSUCCESSFULLY moved a motion for a JOINT PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE to examine Crown, citing recent reports and his earlier complaints of pokie tampering which resulted in a “laughably tiny fine” of $300,000 in Victoria.
Politicians from BOTH sides preferring to have it referred it to the Australian Commissioner for Law Enforcement Integrity, which Christian Porter says is “the most appropriate body to consider these allegations”.
Christian Porter said if the ACLEI uncovered conduct by public servants who were not law enforcement officials, or by civilians or employees of a commercial organisation, ACLEI could refer information and further allegations to the Australian federal police.
While Labor backed the government’s call to tap the ACLEI to conduct an inquiry instead of a parliamentary committee, the Greens and Wilkie raised concerns the decision could put ministers and other politicians out of reach of the probe.
Calls for an inquiry began with a Nine investigation alleging tens of thousands of leaked internal Crown documents show the casino company has close ties to organised crime through the organisers of junkets run to lure gambling whales from mainland China, where gambling is banned.
The investigation featured the former Australian Border Force head Roman Quaedvlieg, who told 60 Minutes two government ministers complained to him that Crown’s VIP jets “weren’t receiving a facilitated service for private jets coming into Australia”.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Department of Home Affairs confirmed it has “stakeholder arrangements” with a number of large international organisations for the quick processing of short stay visas but insisted there was no special treatment given to applicants.
The FULL story is in the attached link.
Also eminent Australian judges, lawyers & integrity experts have formed the CENTRE FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY - https://publicintegrity.org.au/about/
In an interview with Guardian Australia, the centre’s chair, former New South Wales court of appeal judge Anthony Whealy, said one of its chief concerns was preventing the restriction of public interest journalism in the name of national security.
The freedoms of whistleblowers and the media have come under attack in a series of recent prosecutions – including of Witness K, Bernard Collaery, Richard Boyle and David McBride – and through police raids on the ABC and the Canberra home of News Corp reporter Annika Smethurst.
Whealy said he had never seen such a concerted pursuit of whistleblowers and journalists in Australia.
He also feared national security would be used to justify mounting prosecutions in secret – a prospect he said would offend principles of open justice and discourage public interest reporting.
FULL STORY here: