NSW Government has overhauled tax arrangements for casino
The NSW government has overhauled the previous government's tax arrangements for Sydney’s star casino - arguing thousands of jobs were at risk if it didn't do so.
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00:00 The government is giving the star a temporary tax reprieve, saying the taxes proposed by
00:06 the previous government would have meant that the star would have to close their Sydney
00:10 operation and thousands of jobs would be lost.
00:13 The Treasurer Daniel Mookie today, when announcing the decision, said that the government couldn't
00:18 tax a dead business.
00:19 The government is putting in place a seven-year transitional levy until 2030 and lowering
00:25 the increase on taxes for poker machine profits.
00:28 In return, the star will guarantee about 3,000 jobs over the next six years and the union
00:34 will be verifying their compliance with that commitment.
00:37 The Treasurer Daniel Mookie says that if the star's revenue goes up, their taxes will also
00:42 increase.
00:43 He says that the Coalition's proposed tax of 60.7% on poker machine profits would have
00:50 meant that the star's operations would have become unviable.
00:54 This is a little bit of what he had to say earlier.
00:57 Should we not reach agreement with Crown, then the government reserves the option to
01:00 introduce legislation to make that change as well.
01:05 In terms of what is next, we will be having those conversations with Crown and we will
01:10 equally be paying close attention to the star's financial position over the next two years.
01:16 The context for all of this is that the star has appeared to be in a difficult financial
01:21 position recently.
01:22 In April, they announced they'd be cutting 500 jobs from their Sydney and Gold Coast
01:27 casinos and freezing salaries and cancelling executive bonuses.
01:31 Last year, they were also issued with a $100 million fine and licensed suspension for failing
01:37 to prevent criminal activity.
01:39 The Treasurer says that the star will be paying more tax than it does now, about $54 million
01:44 more over four years.
01:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]