Page: 661
Mr SOURIS: My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Gaming. Is Quoc Thai Ly, the treasurer of the Indo-China Chinese Association, which received State Government grants for compulsive gambling, and which reportedly funded Phuong Ngo's Long Bay party, the same Quoc Thai Ly who, according to police records, put more than $16 million through the old Sydney casino in just six months?
Mr FACE: I assume the Leader of the National Party is talking about the framework of the Casino Community Benefit Fund. The person he is talking about may well be a person connected with the Indo-China Chinese Association. In fact, the Act provides for the payment of a levy in respect of the Sydney casino licence, and it also provides for money derived from that levy to be the subject of a trust deed and appointed trustees. The role of the trustees is to make recommendations to me about the distribution of fund moneys. I make it quite clear that my role is only to approve or not approve the trustees' recommendations. Unless the trustees have made a recommendation, money cannot be taken out of the fund. So any funds that would have been extended to the New South Wales Indo-China Chinese Association would have been on the recommendation of the trustees themselves.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Gosford to order.
Mr FACE: The Casino Control Act also provides for policy guidelines to be issued by the Minister for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of the trust deed. Last year funding policy guidelines were developed by an interdepartmental committee. That was, of course, as a consequence of what I reported to the House recently—that I had some concerns that moneys may not have been used for their intended purpose. The object of those guidelines is to assist the trustees in making recommendation for funding by indicating the percentage of funds that should be directed each year to the objectives of the fund. That has been the case once again with funds for the Indo-China Chinese Association. Those objectives are funding for counselling, treatment and rehabilitation programs, research, preventative measures, education and awareness, and community projects.
The guidelines do not override the requirement that it is the responsibility of the trustees to make all recommendations regarding the fund allocations. For the information of the Leader of the National Party, I might add that as a result of the trust deed and the legislation requirements, I am at arm's length from the decision making relating to the allocation of moneys from the Casino Community Benefit Fund.
[Interruption]
Has the Leader of the National Party any information to the contrary? In the time that I have been a member of this Chamber from time to time he has made wild and wonderful allegations in this place, but never on any occasion has he come up with a scintilla of evidence to support anything that he has raised in this House. He is a fake. He never comes up with evidence to support his allegations. I put to the honourable member and to the House that we can account for where the moneys did or did not go in regard to the Indo-China Chinese community. I have been able to ascertain that the Federal Government gave $100,000 to the same organisation. I am told that the auditing process for that Government is very suspect. The honourable member ought to be asking his Federal colleagues where the money is.
I repeat that the Leader of the National Party can never come up with any evidence to support the many allegations that he has made while I have been a member of this Chamber. He has not come up with one scintilla of evidence. I point out again that the financial reporting requirements specified under the funding agreements will be met by the Casino Community Benefit Fund. I invite the honourable member to bring to my office or departmental officers particulars of the matters he has raised in the House—but I would wager that he will not.