The billion dollar hub Coast does not want
ICLEARLY haven’t been paying attention. While my gaze was averted it would appear a solution has been found to M1 gridlock, extra police have been hired for the Gold Coast and the cruise ship and cableway projects have got up and running.
Oh, and DV offenders are getting trackers as soon as a court orders them, not whenever the next delivery arrives from Brisbane.
All things that Gold Coasters clearly want.
How else to explain how this State Government is putting so much time and energy into pursuing a project demanded by absolutely no one?
The same State Government that can only be convinced to provide basic infrastructure like safe crossings at schools after a child has been seriously injured has decided, in its wisdom, that what the Gold Coast most urgently needs is a second casino.
By their standards, they are moving at warp speed to provide it.
While making any kind of decision about The Spit was parked behind an 18-month “master planning” process, amid exhaustive community consultation, the Government aims to begin hawking the casino proposal to bidders by year’s end, with – it would appear – close to nobody on the Gold Coast having been consulted.
Disturbingly, they appear fixated on locating their gambling palace – sorry, “global tourism hub” – on a site adjoining the Broadwater Parklands at Southport.
This is a decision that could only be made by someone with limited knowledge of the Coast.
The Broadwater Parklands has been one of the city’s great success stories of recent years.
With its rockpools, playgrounds, and regular festivals, it has become a firm family favourite.
It has even become the natural place to hold the Gold Coast Show.
But could it retain its easy-going, familyfriendly atmosphere in the shadow of a
Hard Rock-style casino? Hardly. They wouldn’t try it in Brisbane. Imagine the outcry if that city’s new casino was being built not across the river at Queen’s Wharf, but on land right beside the South Bank playground? Yet that’s what is being proposed for the Gold Coast.
No wonder local MP Rob Molhoek is pushing for the facility to go instead to Surfers Paradise. A spot among the strip clubs and late night bars would undoubtedly be far more appropriate to clientele of the sort of casino we’re likely to get than a view of Southport’s jumping pillow. “Personally, I think a casino for the Coast is a hard case to build,” Mr Molhoek told the Bulletin.
“If they want to build one it should be in a precinct intended for tourism. “Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach are our adult entertainment precincts. @That’s where the tourists go. We don’t want another casino relying on local people. We want (an attraction) to draw people to the city.” Mr Molhoek could not be more right. He speaks with the logic of a local who understands his community well. The problem is the Government in Brisbane appears to be operating to a different kind of logic.
One has to ask, if a casino opposite the Broadwater Parklands is the answer, what is the question?
The only way to find out is to examine who stands to benefit.
It won’t be locals. If the project goes ahead at Southport there will be plenty of hoopla about jobs created. But it will be poppycock. The impact on existing clubs, like Club Southport, the Southport Sharks or the local RSL, could be devastating. Once construction is complete, we wouldn’t see jobs created, just jobs displaced.
There would also be a huge hit to the revenue those clubs generate for more worthy causes than the bottom line of a foreign-owned conglomerate. And the familyfriendly atmosphere of the Broadwater Parklands could be forever altered.
I have enjoyed many nights watching outdoor movies on the big screen there with my children. I don’t know if I’d be so keen if it meant mixing it with drunks and worse ejected from the casino across the street for unruly behaviour.
And all of this is even without getting into a debate about the likely misery a second casino would bring to hopeless gambling addicts.
However, there would be one big beneficiary.
The State Government could expect to pull in millions in revenue, especially if the casino was built on public land leased out to the operator.
Brisbane’s new casino will deliver $272 million to Government coffers before it even opens its doors. The operators are also committed to making minimum guaranteed gaming tax payments to the State Government of $880 million in total over the first 10 years of operation.
You can be sure that similar windfalls would be expected of the second Gold Coast gaming house.
With Queensland having lost its AAA rating, and state debt projected to hit
$83 billion by 2021-22, it’s easy to see why the Government is falling over itself to cash in.
All they have to do is sell the idea to the troublesome locals. Cue nonsense about global tourism hubs, Celine Dion and why casinos these days are “moving away from gaming being the main source of income”.
It has to be nonsense. Logic tells us so. An investment of more than a billion dollars couldn’t possibly be recouped by putting on concerts.
But they treat us like fools, spinning magical fairytales to convince Gold Coasters to accept a second casino of dubious quality in a rotten location which close to nobody has ever asked for.
What a shame they’re not equally keen on delivering the things people on the Gold Coast actually want.