Qld regulators meet NSW casino counterparts over Star allegations

Queensland’s casino regulators have travelled to NSW to meet their interstate counterparts as part of their watching brief on allegations against Star Entertainment Group that are being probed in a series of public hearings.

Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman confirmed the visit in Parliament when she was also quizzed about indemnities for former deputy premier Jackie Trad’s legal action against the corruption watchdog, and advice about removing former Crime and Corruption Commission chair Alan MacSporran.

Some allegations against Star Entertainment Group relate to its Gold Coast casino.Credit:

Star Entertainment chief executive Matt Bekier resigned on Monday, with more departures tipped after days of damaging revelations by the inquiry, sparked by allegations aired by this masthead about the group’s failure to stop money laundering and organised crime risks in its casinos.

The company holds licences for Brisbane’s Treasury Casino – which are to be transferred to the $3.6 billion Queen’s Wharf development upon its completion – and The Star casino on the Gold Coast.

During question time on Wednesday, Greens MP Michael Berkman asked Ms Fentiman if she would commit to similar public hearings into whether the company was fit to hold a casino licence.

Ms Fentiman, whose portfolio includes the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation (OLGR), said she took the allegations very seriously.

“The OLGR is working very closely with the current NSW public hearings and have been down there to meet with their NSW counterparts, as it did with the Crown inquiry – which began with the Bergin inquiry – and then the subsequent inquiries of Victoria and Western Australia,” she said.

“The government will very carefully consider the allegations made in relation to Star; they will continue the investigations that are under way, and also the outcomes of any inquiries.”

The regulator was working with AUSTRAC and Queensland police to improve the cross-agency sharing of information, she said.

As Palaszczuk government ministers continued their attacks on Scott Morrison’s federal budget, Ms Fentiman also faced questions by the Opposition about any involvement she or her office might have had in seeking advice from Crown Law on the legal steps involved in removing Mr MacSporran from the role.

She denied seeking such advice, and said she was not aware of any such request, but was “happy to ask” her staff.

In a later statement to Parliament, Ms Fentiman said one of her ministerial advisers had sought such advice “in relation to the general powers that exist” around the role of the CCC chair.

The advice was requested independent of herself, without her knowledge, and was not provided to her, she said, but was sought in the context of the recent parliamentary inquiry into the Logan council saga.

Counsel assisting the inquiry, Jonathan Horton, had left it open for the committee to consider making a recommendation to Parliament that Mr MacSporran be removed.

Ms Fentiman also faced questions from the LNP around her role in approving taxpayer backing for Ms Trad’s effort to block the release of a CCC report.

Deputy Opposition Leader Jarrod Bleijie, a former Newman government attorney-general, cited a clause of the ministerial indemnity and legal assistance guidelines that say state support would not be provided to launch civil proceedings unless approved by the attorney-general.

He asked when Ms Fentiman signed off on such assistance and how much it had cost the state.

Ms Fentiman did not answer the question amid rounds of booming interjections from the Opposition benches. She did, however, mention that similar help was signed off by Mr Bleijie in the past.

She also brought up rare public comments made by the outgoing Chief Justice, who announced earlier this month a suppression order on Ms Trad’s case had been lifted after comments made by Mr Bleijie under parliamentary privilege rendered it “futile”.

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