Category: Australia

Crown was forced to overhaul its board, management and procedures to satisfy the regulators, who approved a conditional license for Crown to operate its Barangaroo casino in June. The conditional license is valid until December 31, 2023.

The casino operator has since been bought out by US private equity giant Blackstone for $8.9 billion, with the deal removing Packer as a shareholder. Crown is still awaiting reassessment from the NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority to see if it is suitable to hold an unconditional license for Barangaroo.

McGrath reiterated Crown’s claim that the gambling business was a vital component when it came to underpinning the economics of the resort and said Crown had already received significant interest in membership.

“The level of interest has exceeded our expectations in terms of membership,” he said.

“I think we’ll be at a pretty good pace relatively quickly. However, what’s important to us is that we do that in a very safe and responsible way.”

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Crown has not said what its financial targets are for the casino operation and analysts no longer cover the company following the Blackstone takeover.

In December last year, Macquarie forecast that Barangaroo could end up with 35 per cent of Sydney’s tables-based gambling market by the 2025 financial year. This is expected to be worth $923 million. Macquarie forecast VIP turnover of $10 billion by 2025.

The more immediate focus for McGrath has been ramping up Barangaroo’s resort facilities following COVID-19 lockdowns and a period of recruitment.

“We were able to achieve certain ‘business as usual’ levels of employment by March, April, which has allowed us to operate without restriction the last few months. And that’s been important in setting up this next phase of our growth as well,” McGrath said.

“We’ve been we’ve been running very high occupancy levels, but also the restaurants and bars have [had] a very high take-up from patrons.”

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A man has been charged and another is in a critical condition after a daylight stabbing outside a strip of shops in Sydney’s west on Sunday.

Police were called about 3.30pm to Sheffield Street in Merrylands where they found a 35-year-old man with multiple stab wounds.

He was bleeding heavily and went into cardiac arrest as ambulance crews arrived. Paramedics stabilized him before taking him to Westmead Hospital, where he remains in a critical condition.

Witnesses told Nine News the man was crossing the street when two men dressed in black approached, stabbing him repeatedly before kicking him in the head.

Critical care teams including a doctor and paramedics were close by and were able to provide advanced care at the scene.

After investigations, police arrested a 31-year-old man at a nearby home on William Street.

He was taken to Granville police station and charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent to murder.

He was refused bail and is due to appear on Monday at Fairfield Local Court, where police will allege the men are known to each other.

Police are urging anyone with information that could assist detectives to contact them.

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Marles, who is acting prime minister while Anthony Albanese takes leave this week, expressed satisfaction with the performance of the existing submarine fleet, known as the Collins class, despite concerns about the diesel-powered vessels since they were launched in the 1990s.

“I think the Collins is operating excellently in 2022,” he said.

“I mean, the only point to make is that obviously, when Collins was imagined and put into place, it was expected that it would start coming out of the water in the middle of this decade.

“There were issues earlier on around utilization but I think we’ve addressed those and there’s a good rhythm around it. And it is a highly capable asset.”

The government said last year it would extend the life of the Collins fleet by about a decade during the wait for nuclear submarines that are meant to be deployed from 2040, but this has sparked a debate about whether the existing fleet could last that long or may need to be upgraded to second time.

Marles reiterated there was a “real possibility” of a capability gap after the extension of the Collins-class and that this would have to be considered by the working group looking into the submarine timeframe under the AUKUS agreement with the United States and United Kingdom, as well as by a separate review of defense he announced last week.

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“We are open-minded about looking at every possibility as to how to plan for the capability gap,” he said.

Opposition defense spokesman Andrew Hastie warned of a “very bleak” strategic outlook and said Australia should accelerate its work on missiles, nuclear submarines, fuel stocks and ammunition stocks.

“The point is that if there was a conflict around Taiwan, whether we’re involved directly or indirectly on the periphery we would certainly be in the gun,” Hastie told the ABC’s Insiders schedule on Sunday.

“And that’s why we need to build our deterrent strength, that’s why we need to exercise exceptional political leadership, diplomatic leadership.”

Concerns about local jobs influenced major Coalition decisions on defense in the past decade including the rejection of Japanese submarines in 2015 and the choice of French submarines in 2016 with a promise they would be built in South Australia, but the French contract was canceled at a cost of $2.4 billion in favor of the AUKUS agreement on nuclear-propelled boats.

Marles emphasized the need for strategic need to take priority but said Australian industrial capacity was also fundamental over time.

“Now as it turns out, when we’re talking specifically about submarines, we will inevitably have to develop the capacity to build the submarines here – obviously, not the [nuclear] reactor, that will come from overseas,” he said.

“We need to do that for two reasons. One is that because if you think about the net industrial capability of Australia, the US and the UK, we’ve got to play our part in increasing that. Were we to simply place ourselves in some queue in the US and the UK, it is a very long queue.”

General Dynamics, the US company that makes the Virginia-class nuclear submarine, last year reported a $US39 billion ($56 billion) backlog of work at its electric boat division.

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Marles said the second argument for local industrial capacity was to demonstrate Australia could manage the nuclear vessels under its commitments on nuclear non-proliferation, a key issue for the International Atomic Energy Agency and Australian allies and other countries.

“Defence industry can’t be just a proxy for industry policy, which is what it was for the former government. When it comes to doing defense industry, it is a strategic call. There are good strategic reasons why we should do it and it’s the strategic rationale that should drive it and ultimately make it sustainable,” he said.

On a separate decision on guided missile frigates, Marles played down the idea of ​​buying three more air-warfare destroyers from Spanish company Navantia over the next decade to add to three existing destroyers and fill a capability gap while Australia waits for nine frigates under a $44 billion contract with BAE Systems in the UK.

Marles said the government’s focus was on the frigates from BAE, known as the Hunter class, and getting the project “back on track” from delays that would push delivery dates back by years.

“I mean, it is a formidable capability. And I’m sure the Hunter class will ultimately deliver us a fantastic capability. We’ve got to get it back on track and we’re obviously talking with BAE about that and that is a matter of priority,” he said.

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