The Greens say that proper regulation of the gambling industry requires a ban on the industry donating to political parties.
Western Australian Greens spokesperson on Gambling Alison Xamon said:
“Since 2012-13, more than half of all money donated by Crown to political parties in Australia has come to parties in WA.
“Crown has spent nearly $800,000 in WA alone, with WA Labor raking in $312,430 and the WA Liberals taking $437,509.
“And that’s just the money we can see. The weak political donations laws we have in Western Australia provide no real transparency or accountability around who is lining the pockets of those in power. We know that there is a lot of dark money donated to political parties that goes unaccounted for.
“The activities of Crown in Western Australia is a major part of the reason why Crown has been found unsuitable to operate in New South Wales
“We need our politicians to be representing the interests of our communities, not their billionaire corporate donors. The WA Labor and WA Liberal parties must immediately commit to stop taking donations from gambling businesses including Crown.
“Gambling organisations should not be allowed to buy political influence.
Australian Greens spokesperson on Gambling Rachel Siewert said:
“The gambling industry is just rife with conflicts of interest, Australian Greens spokesperson on Gambling Senator Rachel Siewert said.
“We urgently need a national independent regulator, with gambling companies operating across the country we need a national body regulating them.
States which rely heavily on the income gambling generates cannot be in charge of regulating the industry as there is a clear conflict of interest.
“A person owes Centrelink a few hundred dollars and the Government spends billions pursuing them and we are seeing next to zip from the Federal Government when it comes to the very serious findings of what is happening at Crown.
“There are some very serious findings in the NSW report on the conduct and operations of Crown relating to its Melbourne and Perth operations and we need to see action from the Federal Government and an independent investigation into what's going on in all of Crown’s operations.
(Image Credit - Joachim Kirchner from Pixabay)
