Heads must roll at Crown Resorts, says former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett

Jeff Kennett says the “wonderful assets” of the gaming company have been “let down” by its board.

Former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett. Picture: Stuart McEvoy/The Australian.

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett has launched a scathing attack on the James Packer-backed Crown Resorts, claiming the “wonderful assets” of the gaming company have been “let down” by its board of directors, the majority of whom he says should resign, including chair Helen Coonan.

Mr Kennett, whose government was responsible for approving Crown’s massive Southbank entertainment complex in Melbourne and granting the company’s first casino licence in 1994, said he had been angered by revelations in an extraordinary public inquiry of the company’s governance failures and said he felt “sad” for Crown’s major shareholder Mr Packer.

“When I look at the people that make up the Crown board, I am so angry. The assets of the company are so good — the Crown facility here in Melbourne is the largest single employer in the state,” Mr Kennett told The Australian.

“To think we have been subjected to the sort of utterances from these directors that have come out of this inquiry, they do the private sector a terrible disservice,” he added.

Crown chair and former federal Liberal minister Helen Coonan last week “unreservedly” apologised to shareholders for the company’s failures and outlined an extensive reform agenda for Crown to strengthen its risk management processes, and especially its anti-money-laundering functions.

But Mr Kennett, a former Liberal premier, said she should step down immediately.

“She should go. She has been on the board for a number of years. Unfortunately, she has been part of this failure. For good governance you have to have a good understanding of risk and compliance (and) they have none of it,’’ he said.

“Other than the two most recent additions to the board (former senior bureaucrat Jane Halton and former Aristocrat executive Toni Korsanos), the rest of the directors should go too. They should resign. You can put together another good board that recognises the intrinsic values of the properties Crown holds. It can be a very good company again, with proper governance.

Picture: NCA NewsWire / Steven Saphore

“I say this on behalf of the communities those assets add value to. Its new asset at Barangaroo in Sydney is a stunning building, it deserves to have the best governance possible.”

Mr Kennett’s comments come after Crown’s biggest institutional investor, Perpetual, on Saturday called for all of the board, including Ms Coonan, to reconsider their positions following damning evidence of governance and compliance failures at the company.

Perpetual voted its 9.3 per cent shareholding in Crown against all the resolutions at the company’s annual meeting last week, which led to a first strike against the remuneration report, where more than 25 per cent of shareholders voted down the report.

There were also unprecedented protest votes against the three directors up for re-election, Ms Halton, Guy Jalland and John Horvath.

Mr Horvath, Crown’s longest-serving independent director, revealed at the meeting that he would retire from the board given the vote against him.

Mr Packer’s Consolidated Press Holdings abstained from voting its 37 per cent interest to support the remuneration report resolution. A second strike at next year’s AGM could lead to a spill of the board.

“I feel sorry for James. I knew him well. I am covered with sadness that something that was so good, that helped us rebuild the state — everyone focuses on the casino, but the restaurants, the hotels, the theatres are all world class — these wonderful assets have simply been let down,” Mr Kennett said.

“I don’t understand why Perpetual and the major shareholder don’t put together a new board. And they should do it quickly. Because these assets are too important to be lost by the communities they serve.”

Mr Kennett said he had always been privately critical of the directors appointed to the Crown board over the past decade, “before the last two”.

“I know them all and I know why they were put on. It frustrates me that among our brothers and sisters in the corporate world, there are so many people there for the ride and not there for the right reasons,’’ he said.

Ms Coonan told last Thursday’s AGM that she was totally committed to board renewal at the company and was currently looking for ­“astute, qualified and fiercely independent directors working in the best interest of all shareholders”.

Mr Kennett’s comments come after a company of which he is the largest shareholder, Amtek Corporation, ended a contract with Crown in the middle of the year to service poker machines at its Melbourne casino.

Crown awarded the gaming machine services contract to the Melbourne-based Amtek in 2017.