Labor backs second Sydney casino

Sydney looks set to have another casino, with the New South Wales Opposition deciding to back the proposal on the grounds it will not have poker machines.

James Packer is proposing to build a high rollers casino and six-star hotel on the Barangaroo site in the central business district.

Its construction means Sydney will become the only state capital with two casinos - it already has Star City.

A spokesman for NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell says the Government has not made a decision yet on the second casino.

However, any legislation looks set to get a very smooth ride through Parliament after Labor's shadow cabinet voted in favour.

Labor's Luke Foley says it is a necessary development.

"We need high-end accommodation, there's a chronic shortage for Sydney," he said.

"We're calling on the O'Farrell Government to give a detailed assessment to the Crown Hotel proposal.

"And we think that whether it's Crown or any other company, a proposal for a six-star hotel for Sydney must be seriously considered by Government.

"Crown says that the only way to get the revenues to pay for a six-star hotel is with some limited, high-end, VIP gaming."

Labor's Luke Foley says Crown is the only player in the running to build a second casino.

Greens concerned

Any change in legislation allowing for a second casino licence has the Greens worried.

They have asked questions about why a possible second licence would not go out to tender.

Greens MP John Kaye says it has more to do with Mr Packer's power.

"There's a long distance between an unsolicited proposal and a done deal and what Sydney's being presented is Mr Packer's wealth, Mr Packer's political power driving an outcome rather than having a proper tender process," he said.

Mr Foley says it is not that simple.

"What's happening at Barangaroo is not just urban renewal, it's urban reconstruction on a grand scale," he said.

"The south of the precinct is being developed by Lend Lease, renewal of the financial district in Sydney, which is appropriate. Sydney is the financial capital of Australia.

"Lend Lease has entered into an exclusive arrangement with Crown to develop a hotel on the land that Lend lease has the rights to develop.

"If there is to be a six-star hotel on the western edge of the city on the waterfront as part of the Barangaroo development - it's Crown.

"They're the only player in the game courtesy of their commercial agreement with Lend Lease."

Mr Foley says Labor's potential support for the development is absolutely conditional on a requirement that there be no poker machines.

"VIP gaming involves middle-class Asian tourists in the largest part flying in," he said.

"VIP gaming does not include fleecing the pay packets of local wage and salary earners through poker machines."

'Not needed'

The clinical director for recovery services with the Salvation Army, Gerard Burn, says Sydney does not need another casino.

"The state of NSW doesn't need another one," he said.

"We currently sit within an area that has some of the largest gaming provisions, not just in Australia, but in the world.

"Certainly we're encouraged to hear Luke Foley say that the Labor government (sic) wouldn't support it if it had poker machines.

"But I mean the comment around fleecing the pay packets of working people with poker machines, it was a Labor government that presided over a huge proliferation of electronic gaming machines in NSW.

"This casino will attract, and this has been proven in other casinos, will attract the average Australian. It will."

Source: ABC News, 24 October 2012