The Fatty O’Barrell government is really scraping the bottom thereof, with its latest genuflection to the Evil (Packer-Gambler) Empire. By changing State planning approval processes and then giving the nod to a new casino in the dress circle of the Barangaroo development. No competitive tender or independent assessment needed, as it falls within the Orwellian category of ‘unsolicited proposal’ and therefore at the government’s discretion.
Apparently said proposal is ‘unique’ because of Crown’s expertise in casino management. Look at what a great job they did colonising riverside Melbourne. Puh-lease! And the Labor so-called Opposition has pre-emptively rolled over too. Nothing has changed since Askin’s heyday in charge of the glorious premier state. In fact we can trace dodgy government business from the earliest days of the colony with the Rum Corps, Macarthur, Wentworth et al, but I digress.
An ‘unsolicited proposal’ sounds like foreplay for consensual relations. We just need to firmly say no, so that Sydney doesn’t get shafted with another casino. It’s starting to feel like a gang-bang of the Emerald City. But maybe she was really asking for it – sorry, I got carried away! Anyway it’s all ok because the casino will have ‘high roller’ invitation-only rooms for the much-loved Asian market. And regulations will never change in the future to allow local commoners or pokies. Heaven forbid.
Our ex PM and Architectural Godfather-in-Chief of Barangaroo Paul Keating seems to think the lovely new hotel casino could easily add another 20 levels to the current plan. He suggests a Brancusi-style design, which would indeed mark a useful exclamation mark over the whole sorry site. Methinks that a more appropriate inspiration would be Barcelona’s Torre Agbar skyscraper, designed by Jean Nouvel, and known as ‘el supositorio’ by the locals.
