Crown Resorts, Helen Coonan delivered firm rebuke

Rod Clement

The squeaky clean image of executive chairman Helen Coonan and her path to Crown Resorts’ cultural reform has been smashed by the Victorian royal commission, with closing submissions to commissioner Ray Finkelstein recommending that she be ruled out as a suitable associate.

It was only four months ago that the final report of The Fink’s NSW counterpart, Patricia Bergin, painted the former Howard minister as a potential saviour of the group, who had the capacity to lead the company to “achieve a fresh start and emerge a very much stronger and better organisation”.

Crown Chairman Helen Coonan. Source: Supplied

Lengthy questioning in the final days of public hearings earlier this month led counsel assisting the commissioner, Adrian Finanzio, to a wholly contradictory finding, however, calling out her lengthy service on the board during the period of “organisational failings”.

“While she is to be commended for her willingness to stay the course, on balance, the cumulative effect of her involvement in the past failing of Crown and her evidence in the commission in more recent times, it is open for you to find that she is not suitable to be leading the cultural reform that Crown needs at this time,” he said.

Coonan’s inaction, Finanzio noted, was a key contributor to the casino group’s current problems, including a “stunning lack of curiosity” when it came to the issues of gaming tax brought to light by Melbourne CEO Xavier Walshonly earlier this year.

That’s all on top of the whole organisation’s unfitness to run a casino operation, too, another of counsel’s findings.

There was no mincing of ­Finanzio’s words: “This is not a case of trifling indiscretions or breaches, capable of easy and quick rectification. This is a case where it would be open to find that the misconduct of Crown has been so flagrant and so well publicised and detrimental to Crown’s reputation that no amount of restructuring can restore confidence in it as a fit and proper person to hold a licence.”

With just that one statement, the group’s road map to redemption seemingly unravelled.

Crown and its lawyers will get their chance to fire back in due course, when they present closing submissions early next month.

Until then, the group is faced with the very real likelihood of two of their three casino operations on ice, ahead of yet more scrutiny from Western Australia’s impending report.

That’s not to mention a rapidly shrinking pool of directors and no obvious successor if indeed Coonan does take her leave.

While Finanzio referenced the potential for pushback from the “old guard”, their bark is diminishing by the day.

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Walsh under pump

As for Crown Melbourne chief Xavier Walsh, it will come as no surprise that his days are also probably numbered, after a similar rebuke on Tuesday.

“The evidence has brought into serious question the judgment and integrity of Mr Walsh,” Adrian Finanzio said, picking apart the timeline of events that led to his alerting the board of the Melbourne casino group’s underpayment of gambling tax, and also the very circumstances that saw him appointed to the post last year.

Crown Melbourne Chief Executive Officer Xavier Walsh arrives to the Royal Commission (AAP Image/Luis Ascui)

“Mr Walsh was not selected for his role as CEO or appointed to the board because of a special skill or aptitude in leading such an ambitious reform program.”

He added: “Mr Walsh did not distinguish himself at the time nor since as a person able to recognise or willing to address or escalate issues of importance or lead change.

“In the time since he has been thrust into positions of greater authority, and he has, with respect, not risen to the occasion in a way that would give any confidence that he has the necessary qualities to be a suitable associate.”

Still, there was one affirmative point on Walsh’s scorecard at least – Finanzio siding with the chief’s recollection of events when it came to his dealings with Helen Coonan in late February.

Cold comfort though for Walsh, and even less so for not-yet-probity-cleared group chief Steve McCann, who looks poised to lose his second venue chief in as many weeks.

Margin Call only last week told you of Sydney CEO Peter Crinis’s departure as head of the hotels division and the Barangaroo venue, after a lengthy tenure in Melbourne, for a time under Walsh himself.

After the exodus post-Bergin, you could say its just par for the course.

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Close to home

There’s seemingly no limit to the variety of consultants that the Helen Coonan-chaired Crown Resorts has been prepared to engage to advise on its so-called reform process towards retaining its lucrative licences to operate casinos in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.

But look, there’s been one specialist right under the now perilously positioned chair’s nose, or at least around the corner, in the former of the former conservative politician’s son, Adam Coonan.

Until just a few weeks ago, Coonan’s 44-year-old son (from her first marriage) had been a director of her Coonan Consulting Services, but that gig has fallen by the wayside now that he’s been appointed a partner at leading accounting and professional services firm EY.

And you won’t believe it, but the Crown chair’s trained-lawyer son is none other than a governance and risk expert working in both the private and public sectors.

Adam Coonan and his counsellor wife Candice Bailey live just around the corner from Mum Helen and her husband, former NSW Supreme Court judge Andrew Rogers, in a home that is half-owned by the embattled Crown chair.

Until last October, EY was Crown’s auditor, with the younger Coonan’s now colleague Michael Collins Crown’s former audit partner.

The firm also generated significant revenue from doing non-audit work for Crown, with the casino group in the 2020 financial year paying EY a total of $4.8m for services, $1.66m of which was for audit work.

No doubt there will be plenty for Coonan and her son to discuss next time they catch up.

In his bio, Adam Coonan says he operates “at the leading edge of government and institutional reform”.

“I offer a sophisticated understanding of how to evolve and strengthen financial, governance, risk and policy frameworks.

“I have led and influenced significant transformation at an organisational and government, whole-of-state level, embedding governance policy and risk cultures and leading the market in terms of ensuring accountability to all stakeholders.”

Sounds like just what Crown needs.

Helen Coonan

Xavier Walsh

Adam Coonan