Dominic Perrottet, Bob Carr trade blows over pokies card, Nazi uniform
Dominic Perrottet and former NSW premier Bob Carr have traded barbs in a fiery war of words— find out why.
State Election
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Premier Dominic Perrottet and former Premier Bob Carr have traded barbs in a fiery war of words over pokie machines and the current Premier’s Nazi uniform gaffe.
Mr Perrottet hit back on Monday at Mr Carr, after the former Premier took to social media claiming the current Premier was “unelectable” after it had been revealed he had worn a Nazi uniform at his 21st birthday.
The current Premier swung back on Monday, saying the cashless gaming card he is trying to force through was in reaction to Mr Carr allowing the number of pokie machines in NSW to balloon during his time in power.
“This is a former Labor premier who left our state with a $30 billion infrastructure backlog and put pokie machines on every street corner. We‘re still cleaning up his mess. So I won’t be taking lectures from him,” Mr Perrottet said.
“He opened (the state) up (to pokie machines). We have more pokie machines in NSW than anywhere outside of Nevada, and who was responsible for that? The Bob Carr Labor government, and we are still cleaning up that mess. We’re still cleaning up the mess of the $30 billion infrastructure backlog and the broken budget we inherited by Labor.”
Mr Carr, however, responded that Mr Perrottet’s Nazi uniform admission – which he described as an “enthusiasm” for the “Nuremberg parade ground” referring to a rallying area for the Nazi party during before WWII - was part of the Coalition’s “last gasp”.
“There’ve been four Coalition Premiers since I was premier, and if they wanted to revise policy on poker machines, they’ve had 12 years in which to do it,” Mr Carr told The Telegraph.
“His enthusiasm for the Nuremberg parade ground is surely the last gasp of the Coalition. It’s now a matter of whether his party dispenses with him before voters.”
Mr Perrottet’s initial response came after Mr Carr took to social media to criticise the Premier in the wake of the move.
“I learnt Nazis were genocidal racists through history at a state high school…With a private school and heaps of privilege how did young Perrottet miss out? Verdict: he is now unelectable,” Mr Carr tweeted.
The Premier on Monday also vowed to push his controversial cashless gaming card through cabinet before March, in a move which would bring the state one step closer to a ban on using cash to play the pokies.
Mr Perrottet on Monday committed to getting his fellow ministers to accept the proposal ahead of the election in March.
“Yep…I‘ve made this very clear, there should be no ambiguity. We’re going to cashless pokie machines in NSW and the issues around that I will announce as part of a as part of a substantive package, but you will see very clearly that’s where we’re going because we can’t have a situation...where money laundering is occurring to pokie machines in NSW set up very clearly,” he said.
While Transport Minister David Elliott is the only Minister on record to speak out against the measure, it’s understood significant resistance remains throughout the Coalition.
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