QLD: Buck stops with Beattie over "net bet" affair, say Libs

AAP General News (Australia)
08-01-1999
QLD: Buck stops with Beattie over "net bet" affair, say Libs

BRISBANE, Aug 1 AAP - Queensland Treasurer David Hamill's "belated" decision today to stand
aside over the so-called net bet scandal did not clear Premier Peter Beattie, state Liberal
leader David Watson said.

"The buck stops with Beattie," Dr Watson told a news conference after Mr Hamill announced
he would stand down until a report by the auditor-general was complete.

The net bet row erupted last week when it was revealed Mr Hamill had granted the state's
first Internet global gaming licence to a company with links to three Labor Party figures.

Backbencher Bill D'Arcy, former Ipswich West MP Don Livingstone and Ipswich City councillor
Paul Pisasale have all owned a lucrative stake in the Internet gaming company, Gocorp.

Mr Beattie has maintained he had no prior knowledge of the matter until it was revealed in
the media last week.

But Dr Watson told journalists: "It simply defies belief that Mr Hamill wouldn't have
mentioned this deal to the premier before making such a politically charged decision."

He said had Mr Hamill purposely kept the matter secret, the premier should have sacked him
on the spot for political stupidity.

"The premier's failure to act only deepens suspicion that he knew a lot more than he's
letting on," Dr Watson said.

He said Mr Beattie should also reveal if he had been approached by any of the three Labor
figures over the net bet affair.

"Mr Beattie wants us to believe he's a mushroom, that he was kept in the dark," Dr Watson
said.

"Mr Beattie is claiming he was never approached personally, that he was never briefed by
his own treasurer or department bureaucrats, and that not one of his other Labor MPs or Labor
officials bothered to mention this matter to him," he said.

Dr Watson also said he did not believe Mr Beattie's staff knew nothing of the deal.

"The premier and the treasurer share the same building and work hand in glove on just
about every major project, so Mr Beattie's denials don't ring true," he said.

Dr Watson said it was important the auditor-general's report into the affair "is not
massaged to protect the political sensitivities of an incompetent treasurer and his friend the
premier.

AAP geb/bm

KEYWORD: NET CASINO LIBERALS

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