Casino secret of Labor-linked lobbyist Evan Moorhead

The lobbyist behind Annastacia Palaszczuk’s re-election has been secretly working for Star Entertainment.

Evan Moorhead is being paid by the casino operator to advise in its dealing with the government.

The Labor lobbyist behind ­Annastacia Palaszczuk’s re-election has been secretly working for under-fire Star Entertainment as the Queensland government resists launching an inquiry into whether the gambling giant should continue holding casino licences in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Queensland is one of the only states not to have held an inquiry into its major casino operator in recent years. Royal commission-style probes have been conducted into Crown and Star in Victoria, Western Australia and NSW.

The ongoing inquiry into Star’s Sydney casino has heard evidence of money-laundering, bank fraud and links to triad crime gangs, prompting an ­exodus of executives and a recommendation it be stripped of its NSW licence.

An investigation by The Australian can reveal the close backroom ties between senior Queensland Labor figures and Star, which has even hosted and paid for fundraisers for Palaszczuk government ministers.

Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman. Picture: Zak Simmonds

It raises questions about the government’s refusal to appoint an external investigator or commit to any review of the company’s fitness to operate the state’s two biggest casinos, as it also builds its new flagship, the $3.6bn Queen’s Wharf casino in Brisbane.

Last month, Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman introduced pre-emptive legislation to tighten regulations on Queensland casinos, including fines of up to $50m for integrity breaches, in a move the government hoped would be enough to ­silence calls for an inquiry.

The legislation was drafted in consultation with gaming stakeholders, including Star and the United Workers Union, led in Queensland by Labor power­broker Gary Bullock.

Star sources have told The Australian that lobbyist Evan Moorhead – a former state ALP secretary who worked in Ms Palaszczuk’s office until 2019 and ran her 2020 re-election campaign – is being paid by the casino operator to advise in its dealing with the government.

Mr Moorhead previously, and last month through a spokesman for his firm, Anacta Strategies, ­denied he was lobbying for Star and refused to answer whether he was working in any capacity for the company.

“We keep our work confidential and we disclose everything we’re required to disclose on the lobbyist register,’’ Mr Moorhead told The Australian.

All lobbying has to be declared on a public register in Queensland. But several Star sources said Mr Moorhead was engaged as a “consultant” by Star’s then in-house lobbyist, Alison Smith, after he resigned as director of strategy in Ms Palaszczuk’s office in May 2019.

“He does consulting for us on how to do business with the Palaszczuk government … when there is a particular issue we get his advice,’’ one Star source said, adding they were not aware of him directly lobbying the government on behalf of Star.

Mr Moorhead worked for the Premier at a time the government was in negotiations with Star over a number of issues.

Ms Smith, hired by Star just months after Ms Palaszczuk came to power in 2015, is the wife of former Labor deputy premier Paul Lucas.

Another former staffer of Ms Palaszczuk, one-time federal ALP candidate Corinne Mulholland, late last year took over from Ms Smith as Star’s in-house lobbyist.

Both Ms Smith and Mr Bullock are understood to have been influential in convincing the government in late 2015 to award the rights to Star to develop the Queen’s Wharf casino-residential development over a rival consortia, led by Crown. Mr Bullock, head of Labor’s dominant Left faction with sway over senior cabinet ministers, had backflipped on previous public support for Crown’s bid after striking a deal with Star for on-site access for his union to casino workers.

The project promises to deliver the government $1bn in upfront payments and gaming revenues over its first decade of operation.

Any inquiry, and subsequent move to strip Star of its casino ­licence, would call into question the future ownership and management of Queen’s Wharf, the state’s biggest private project and due to open next year. It would also jeopardise the union agreement with the casinos.

Star has two joint venture partners in Queen’s Wharf, the Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook and Far East Consortium.

Chow Tai Fook is business partners with Suncity, the disgraced junket company, whose former CEO Alvin Chau has been charged with money-laundering, illegal gaming and fraud. Suncity ran junkets delivering highrolling Chinese gamblers to Crown and Star casinos in Australia.

Star sources have told The Australian that revenue from Chinese junkets has been critical to the Queensland operations.

The use of junkets has been suspended by Star.

“You can see from some of the evidence at the (NSW) inquiry that the dodgy things going on in Sydney didn’t stop at the Queensland border,’’ the source said.

The NSW hearings heard that an independent audit by KPMG commissioned by Star in 2018 found major flaws in the way the company investigated the risks of overseas junkets, particularly money-laundering and terrorism funding. “Due diligence on junket participants is limited, particularly in Queensland,’’ the KPMG audit found.

The NSW inquiry also heard Star improperly allowed customers to use China UnionPay debit cards at its casinos, despite NAB questioning “suspicious large amount gambling transactions”.

Between 2013 and June March 2020, Star permitted 1307 patrons to use the CUP cards to withdraw $908m to gamble, disguising the transactions as hotel expenses using “sham documentation” to circumvent Chinese law, which forbids money leaving the country for gambling.

Ms Fentiman has said state ­casino regulators have travelled to Sydney to work closely with the NSW inquiry, and police are also looking into Star’s anti-money-laundering and exclusion practices. In a statement, Ms Fentiman said the government had already “sought to address concerns which have emerged from the public inquiries” into Crown and Star with the new legislation, introduced last month.

Professor Peter Coaldrake, who is heading a review of the public sector in Queensland, raised concerns in his April interim report about the influence of lobbyists.

His comments follow revelations by The Australian that detailed Ms Palaszczuk’s engagement of two lobbyists – Mr Moorhead and another former ALP state secretary, Cameron Milner – to run her 2020 re-election campaign.

“Unfortunately, there is declining confidence that governments across the board are making the best decisions rather than decisions influenced by those with the most effective voice,” Professor Coaldrake said.

“In Queensland recently, this has been accentuated by the dual roles of some lobbyists – acting for clients to influence government, then acting for political parties to help them win elections.’’