John MacKenzie having a bit of a hard time hearing Member for Barron River Michael Trout defending the probity process this morning. No mistaking Trouts frustration with Tony Fung but I take exception to his statement the LNP has remained steady while Fungs plans have changed numerous times over the past two years. Firstly it was obvious when the government called for tenders that Fung was surprised there would be competition for the two regional licenses up for grabs. Fung at this point talked about walking away but Seeney wrote to him begging him to come back and assuring him they would work things out. Then when Fung discarded the idea of a license for Aquis at YK and decided he would buy the Reef Casino and split that license over the two sites the Premier jumped at the idea and promised a deal for a satellite bottle shop casino at YK. Trouble is that option was never offered to the other interests who were not given the opportunity of a license. This government and most especially our local MPs have twisted themselves in knots for Aquis. And while they can excuse it as doing everything possible to make Aquis happen for all the right reasons in their mind the fact remains that there are due processes for good reason. Thankfully the decision as to whether the Fungs are suitable people to be granted a license is not given over to people who rely on a populist vote for their next job or keeping the nicely paid one they have Michael Trout talks here about such processes taking a long time but he as well as many others were also talking last year about the construction starting in April this year, with a wave of Tonys chequebook. Wake up call for all the Aquis cheerleaders. No matter what you are not going to see anything big from the Fungs for years - if ever. Now can we get back to supporting real scale local ventures which may not dazzle but do deliver. https://soundcloud/grantbroadcasters/trout-on-aquis
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 07:21:22 +0000
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