Victorian Labor will back a state government proposal to extend Crown’s licence to 2050 even though it does not like it, after doing a side deal with the casino to retrain 500 retrenched workers.
The opposition leader, Daniel Andrews, said the only responsible thing was for Labor to support the government bill, despite the party’s misgivings.
“It’s more in sorrow than any sense of great joy that I can confirm that the Labor party will not oppose the Crown bill,” Andrews told reporters on Tuesday.
Under the legislation, Crown’s licence will be extended to 2050, with an increase to the number of table games and poker machines, in exchange for additional payments of up to $910m to the state.
Labor says it will support the bill after securing a side deal with Crown – a public commitment to retrain 500 retrenched workers for free at the Tafe college that operates within the complex over the next four years.
Andrews said without the benefit of resources of treasury and finance, the opposition’s choices were to scuttle the deal, which he says would cost jobs, rewrite the deal without knowing the detail or make the best of it.
“The alternatives are to cost jobs. Instead we’ve chosen to secure this public commitment which is very important at a time when unemployment is skyrocketing and our Tafe system is on its knees.”
The bill is expected to go before the parliament on Thursday.