Free booze is back for VIPs at The Star; Catherine King changing course
The Star casino is back on the sauce, with Margin Call learning the Sydney venue has lifted its prohibition on giving out free booze to VIPs, a service banished for months while it embarked on some urgently needed brand rehabilitation.
But technically there was never any order on The Star to stop comping drinks to its most prolific gamblers; the venue seems to have just thought better of doing so once Adam Bell’s excoriating 946-page lashing of its failures was published in November. Bell’s report found, among a litany of shortfalls, that some patrons were being plied with free alcohol as an inducement to keep gambling.
But even as The Star continues to clean up its act under CEO Robbie Cooke there’s evidently been lobbying at play to turn the taps back on. Hence the rounds of contact between Cooke’s people and the fun-sponges at the NSW Independent Casino Commission, if only to receive the NICC’s blessing to resume the free pouring, or at least their tacit approval.
As the NICC said last month: “The Star voluntarily ceased the service of free liquor to patrons following the release of the Bell Report, but following numerous requests from The Star, the NICC has since not objected to the service of free liquor in certain circumstances.”
Margin Call asked The Star about those circumstances and didn’t receive a response, but inquiries suggest the chief concern on the NICC’s part is that the free booze isn’t served on the main gambling floor, and cannot be used as a nudge for further gambling.
So much for hospitality, eh? The regulator won’t be having any of that.
“The NICC will monitor this issue closely over the coming months,” it said.
“The casino operators have also been reminded of their Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) obligations.”
Execs grounded
Vanessa Hudson clearly wasn’t messing about on Tuesday when she seized control of a nosediving Qantas and said the priority of management would be repairing its relationship with customers. The airline’s executives were quick to heed the message.
Jetstar CEO Steph Tully has already pulled out of a major aviation conference in response to that order, having been lined up as the only Qantas Group speaker at the CAPA Australia Pacific Aviation summit in Brisbane next Thursday.
Others known to be attending include Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran, Bonza chief Tim Jordan and Air Tahiti boss Manate Vivish. Tourism Minister Don Farrell, Flight Centre managing director Graham Turner and executives of Virgin Australia, United Airlines, Japan Airlines and Fiji Airways had also confirmed their participation.
Quite a bummer, according to CAPA Centre for Aviation marketing director Marco Navarria, who said Jetstar informed them on Wednesday that Ms Tully could no longer attend.
“It is a shame because we were excited to have her there, however it is no longer possible,” Mr Navarria said. ”We still have a great line-up of industry experts in attendance.”
A Jetstar spokeswoman confirmed that Ms Tully made the decision in order to provide her entire attention to people and customers.
Changing course
Meanwhile, Transport Minister Catherine King keeps erasing her credibility with these evolving explanations of why the government rejected that Qatar Airways bid to fly more planes into Australia.
On Thursday she took a slightly bolder tack, parroting Anthony Albanese’s remarks to parliament on Monday and telling a press conference that the airline could increase its capacity by flying to non-major airports, highlighting Darwin in particular.
“They could fly into Darwin. They could fly into Adelaide. They could fly into Cairns and they could fly into the Gold Coast and into Darwin. They are choosing not to do so,” King said.
That’s a slight adjustment on what Albanese actually said, however. The PM listed Adelaide, the Gold Coast, Avalon and Hobart … but there was no mention of Darwin, and perhaps for good reason. Its airport is undergoing significant resurfacing works to its runway scheduled to continue into late 2024, with disruptions said to be unavoidable.
Lowe sees the light
Philip Lowe’s final speech as RBA governor veered into levity when he retold the story behind the day of his appointment in 2016, or what he now calls “the most challenging day of my life”.
Having just spoken that day at a conference organised by the Bank of Canada, Lowe left the stage and next recalled waking up “in a room with bright lights wearing just a flimsy gown”.
“As I was trying to make sense of where I was I thought about something I had previously read on the internet,” he recounted, “that there was this secret society of central bank governors and that it had some bizarre initiation ceremonies. I recall thinking maybe it is true here in Canada!”
Alas, no society or initiation, just a life-threatening medical episode. Lowe went on to call for the RBA’s taxing and spending powers to be designated to an independent body, warning living standards would stagnate without immediate action.
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