The Northern Territory’s heavily conflicted and “useless” regulatory authority that oversees Australia’s $50 billion online gambling industry was exposed on ABC’s Four Corners program Monday night, which featured NT Racing and Wagering Commission chair Alastair Shields fleeing media questions in an old Mercedes that initially wouldn’t start during a hasty getaway.
The program titled ‘Losing Streak’ examined the lax regulations imposed on the country’s online gambling industry and the failure to adequately scrutinise their licencing breaches by the six-member NT commission that has become the de facto national ‘part-time’ regulator, led by Mr Shields and other current members including Andrew Kirkman’s wife Susan Kirkman, recently departed acting ICAC Greg Shanahan’s wife Rachel Shanahan, Cindy Bravos, Scott Perrin and Ian Curnow.
The investigative report exposed deep failures by the commission to hold the industry accountable amid predatory practices while also revealing a “cosy relationship” between the industry and regulator, including concerning comments Mr Shields made at a gambling industry forum, in which he allegedly bragged about how members of the NT’s racing commission, including himself, owned horses, implying it was industry-friendly.
Former NT director of licencing and executive director of liquor, racing and gaming, Philip Timney was also accused in the program of bragging to industry that the NT had “never cancelled [an online gambling] licence”.
“He said, ‘we’ve never cancelled a licence, we can, but never have’,” said consumer advocate Lauren Levin. “He said, ‘we’re unashamedly the racing and gambling jurisdiction and are open for business’.”
The program focused on the predatory practices of the industry and the devastating impact it has had on Australians from all walks of life, made all the worse by alleged conflicts of interest with the regulatory body, an alleged pro-industry bias and long delays investigating serious complaints.
The program recounted how the Northern Territory moved years ago to attract online gambling companies with the lowest tax rate in the country, but now takes years to deal with complaints about those companies from across the country.
The racing and wagering commission, which has no real staff members and relies on support staff from Licensing NT, last filed an annual report in 1993 and at some point removed the requirement that its members not own race horses.
The Four Corners investigation found that six of the past 10 commissioners have owned race horses at various times, including Mr Shields and Mr Curnow. Further, Mr Shields admitted earlier this year to attending the Darwin Cup as a guest of online gambling companies and in 2018 disclosed that he had a Sportsbet account and was “a member of a syndicate that has a couple of horses”.
Former commissioner Amy Corcoran also owned race horses and declared that her husband owned a share in a horse with Matt Tripp, a major industry player and owner of online gambling companies. Despite the perceived conflict of interest, she did not remove herself from a decision by the commission in relation to one of Mr Tripp’s companies.
Ms Corcoran now works for online gambling company Dabble, based in Darwin.
The program quoted independent federal MP Kate Chaney, who sat on a federal parliamentary committee in 2023 chaired by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy that made 31 recommendations to reduce online gambling harms, none of which have been adopted by the federal Labor Government.
She said it was clear that there was a “cosy relationship” between the NT’s racing and wagering commission and the online bookies.
“It seems like it’s a body that’s much more about serving industry than serving the community,” Ms Chaney said.
The Four Corners program also revealed several instances where a bookmaking company was found to have breached its licensing obligations, but none had their licences revoked. The fines imposed for breaches were far less than the money companies made by predatory practices.
“What we found was the commission had very limited powers to be able to compel people to produce documents or to actually attend before the commission, and the hearings were not conducted with a level of professionalism and rigour that you would have anticipated,” said Jason Munstermann, a lawyer representing a man who had filed a complaint against a betting company after being targeted while in a “vulnerable state”.
One of the most explosive moments of the program occurred when journalist Steve Cannane approached Mr Shields outside a racing and wagering commission meeting, asking why it took three to four years for the commission to hear complaints, how many hours he was dedicating to the job and why Ms Corcoran did not recuse herself from the hearing due to her perceived conflict of interest.
But Mr Shields, who was accompanied to his red Mercedes by fellow commissioner Ian Curnow appearing to act as a sort of bodyguard, refused to answer and jumped into the car.
The ignition did not initially turn over as the car stalled. Mr Shields finally managed to get it started and drive off.
Cannane then went to the gambling regulator in Denmark who presented a very different and more professional outfit, suggesting that he had a staff of 150 people, funded properly by the government to review breaches in the industry. The Danish regulator stated that “we’re not allowed to have any conflict of interest” with gambling companies and cannot accept hospitality from a bookmaker.
Mr Curnow was also asked about his ownership of race horses as he made a hasty retreat after Mr Shields’s embarrassing retreat.
He said Cannane “should talk to the minister who appoints people as commissioners around their eligibility”.
Racing Minister Marie-Clare Boothby did not respond to the NT Independent’s questions following the program, including if she intended to reform the commission, or in any way address the multiple perceived conflicts of interest presented and the cosy relationship between commission members and the industry.
Four Corners reported that the NT Government claimed the Department of Tourism and Hospitality was completing a review of potential conflicts of interest within the racing and wagering commission, but Ms Boothby did not elaborate on that or provide any details of the apparent review, including why the Tourism department would be conducting a review into gaming regulation.
Disclosure: This reporter appeared in the Four Corners program to explain that Mr Shields sits on at least nine boards and commissions in the Northern Territory, including his “part-time” role as chief executive of the Darwin Waterfront Corporation, while raising the issue of where Mr Shields finds the time to fulfil the duties of all his public positions.
Janey’s worst half (Mark) says:
The Four Corners exposé has exposed what Territorians already suspect: the NT Racing and Wagering Commission is riddled with conflicts of interest and completely unfit to regulate a $50 billion gambling industry.
What makes this scandal worse is the tangled web of relationships at the very top of government. Commission chair and Darwin Waterfront CEO Alastair Shields not only presides over a regulator with no credibility, but also happens to be closely tied to Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro through her husband Sam Burke. Mr Burke was controversially appointed deputy CEO at the Waterfront under Shields, a lucrative role never properly advertised and one that has already raised serious questions of nepotism and political favouritism.
When the Chief Minister’s own household benefits directly from Shields’s appointments, Territorians cannot have confidence that conflicts of interest are being managed, let alone that the online gambling industry is being regulated in the public interest. Instead, this looks like yet another cosy club where the same insiders look after one another while the community suffers the consequences.
It’s past time for an independent federal regulator, because the NT government has shown it cannot, and will not, clean up its own backyard.
The Northern Territory is an embarrassing substandard failed jurisdiction.
As John Lennon sang in the year 1980 in the song “Clean Up Time” –
Now it begins – let it begin, Cleanup Time.
Also in John Lennon’s 1971 song “Gimme Some Truth”.
I’m sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
I’ve had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
Isn’t that Rick Tripp’s old Merc, if so would like to see the bill of sale.
The headline makes it sound like the NT only has one National Embarrassment.
The way the place has been run during the last 20 years or so, it’s the whole NT political system that is the real National Embarrassment.
It’s not just “this government”, as previously the ALP has been just as corrupt let’s not forget.
Professional TICKS like Alastair Shields From The Public only survive when they are supported and enabled. Which he has been very successfully by the CLPALP Alliance.
He is not the only one. Think: the Shamahan family and friends, the Kirkman family and friends.
All the others who are slightly less visible but equally as corrupt to the core and incompetent as Alastair Shields.
He’s a lawyer remember so he will know about conflicts of interest etc.
As we’ve said heaps of times, he the Chairman of the legal professional conduct committee who decides which lawyers are fit and proper in disciplinary actions.
There’s another National Embarrassment right there, in your face lawyers!
So, what can be done about this sorry state of affairs?
…
The CLPALP Alliance fully support Alastair with constant employment, sky rocketing benefits, free flights and hotels, large Salary Sacrifice for his Super, the real NT Million Dollar Baby.
Are there others like him? Bleeding the Territory dry while 10 year olds are locked up? Plenty no doubt.
Pigs in the trough, TICK infestation, a huge fatberg blocking up the system.
Whatever metaphor you need to use it will be correct.
Shameless plug:
Join the Movement for Change.
https://changeforbetter.party
Work with them, they know what to do and how to do it.
They will clean this sewer up. And it stinks, doesn’t it!
Thanks to Alastair and Greg and Andrew and Sam and Marie-Clare and LiaR and Selena and Eva and Michael and Alf and and and and.
They are ALLiance on the take. Right in front of our very eyes. Laughing at everyone at how much they can get away with.
From the Attorney General’s own family, who she likely changed the anti-discrimination legislation to protect, the sense of entitlement and privilege starts early on:
“I’m a Danby, we don’t go to jail”
…
Voting for either of the CLPALP Alliance only guarantees one thing:
More of the same.
If you want this ALLiance to Change, For Better, there is really only one choice moving forward.
Darwin Freemasons allow white, male, stale NTG ALP/CLP political apparatchiks to network & orchestrate deals in secret including NT Judiciary, Law Society, police, lobbyists, MLA’s, real estate developers, Darwin DPP, City of Darwin Councillors & Darwin Waterfront Corporation where a nest of vipers reside.
Symptomatic of the cronyism across the ‘elite’, the old car just about wheezing into life itself is a metaphor for the NT…
If Lucio and others want the corruption ended, we need to follow the money trail back to where this all started, because this exposes the current protection of corruption.
Up until 1976, there was almost no corruption in the NT. This was largely due to the efforts of one man, NT News editor Jim Bowditch. Jim held a conditional agreement signed by Rupert Murdoch guaranteeing absolute editorial independence as a condition of the sale to Murdoch in 1968. This meant Bowditch exposed wrong-doing with impunity, not to mention his massive support by Territorians. He was a war hero and uncorruptible.
The power elite decided that Bowditch must go. He was illegally prosecuted for DUI and then sacked. Later it was realised that the plotters faced serious prison time for, presumably, perversion of the course of justice and other crimes, and so history had to be changed to erase a possible prosecutorial trail.
At the cost of millions of dollars, NT News and many other media archives were altered, history books published that featured the revision, and even websites, to create a phony independent record. Many people close to Bowditch were paid off.
If anyone checks the records, they will find that Bowditch was sacked in 1973 because he upset Michael Paspaley. But all Territorians of that era will recall he was sacked in 1976. In 2021, I foolishly tried to obtain the prosecution documents, which prompted four attempts on my life, two of these close to successful.
The identity of the perpetrators is anybody’s guess but one thing I know for sure is that we need a replacement for the NT News. Murdoch will never permit integrity to emerge in this blatant rag. Crimes reported are never exposed. Today, Murdoch controls the entire media of Australia, including the ABC. Any exposure of corruption is mere cover for protection where it really matters.
@Tony Ryan: we 100% believe your story.
Ferg Ferguson and his ChangeForBetter Movement are not scared to take this on.
In fact, he welcomes it.
Please contact them, he’d love to chat with you:
admin@changeforbetter.party
The more the merrier.
Let’s do this
Wow had no idea about any of this. I agree Murdoch has way too much media influence here and in the US. He’s a destroyer. But does anyone read the NTNews anymore?
Hi Tony,
Fascinating – I didn’t know any of that. I was around but out in a community for many years. I’ve heard plenty of criticism of the ABC, usually that it’s too left-wing. So the idea of Murdoch controlling it seems just a tad far fetched. IMHO of course. Cheers.
*extra promise
@Jane Davies: you have a lot of great points and arguments as well as being due redress for sure but your conspiracy theory nonsense is diluting your position-just our opinion.
We state this on the written record and we hear that a Policy Promise will be made on ChangeForBetter’s website soon:
We hope you’re all reading this:
Alastair and Sam and Andrew and LiaR and everyone else who has blatantly and brazenly rorted and abused the current weak system for personal gains.
Changeforbetter Party will come after you.
If necessary, we will change for better, legislation and retrofit any statute of limitations backwards so that we scoop you up for your current and past corrupt and money grabbing activities while employed in Government.
Full, open and independent investigations will be delivered.
We PROMISE to change the laws to make sure you pay for your crimes, literally and figuratively.
You may all think you’ve gotten away with this now because none of the CLPALP Alliance are interested in holding you to account.
BUT WE’RE DIFFERENT TO ALL THE OTHER PARTIES AND THE SILENT MAJORITY.
Your current crimes and unlawfulness will be punished and you will be held properly accountable, by the public’s definition of accountability.
No matter when you committed them.
Trust us. We don’t bluff.
A real Change, For Better Governance.
It’ll be Alastair Open To The Public soon enough.
Ps: criminal lying racist Police Officers and your aiders and abettors too, you’re on that same list.
See y’all soon. 😉
*apologies
We just watched the 4 Corners episode again.
Alastair Shields From The Public has been in that role alone, for 7 years. And no doubt many others.
That means the ALP appointed him and the CLP has kept him.
The exact same as Greg Shamahan and wife. And Andrew Kirkman and wife. And Sam Burke and wife.
Why? Because he’s useful to both of them and their family members and their friends.
The CLPALP Alliance reins supreme everyone.
All for us; none for you.
Rules for Thee; not for Me.
…
Pass the Moet Chandon Sam.
Cha-ching!
I didn’t read any ‘naked racism’ comments here. But I have read your many very long comments. And you do have some good points. But you won’t be reaching a large audience posting them here.
We meant ‘here’ as in ‘NTIndependent’ comments.
There’s been heaps of naked racism, ‘here’. Including claims that we’ve been racist, without explaining how. *waves to Spiggot
We’re working on gaining a wider audience. 🙂