Queensland could allow Star Entertainment to defer its tax arrangements, Premier Steven Miles says.
The company last week opened its casino in the $3.6 billion Queen’s Wharf development, but is facing financial turmoil and entered a trading halt on Friday instead of unveiling its full-year results while it lobbies banks and investors for additional financial support.
It has asked the NSW and Queensland governments for a tax reprieve, which the NSW government has ruled out because it believed any assistance would be primarily used to prop up Queen’s Wharf.
Miles described NSW’s response as “disappointing”, saying Star was an important employer in Sydney as well.
Loading
Asked if taxpayers should forking out to save the casino, Miles said 1400 Queenslanders would work at Queen’s Wharf.
“Star will be required to pay all of its taxes, all of its licence fees,” he said, but said a tax deferral for payroll and gambling taxes was one of the options being considered.
“The worst-case scenario would be that they have to close their doors not long after opening them.”
Asked if deferrals could be worth $300 million, given the company was sounding out investors for that amount, Miles said, “I understand that that kind of figure is of the order of the challenges that they’re dealing with on a company-wide basis”.
Miles said he would need to seek a briefing from his staff when asked by a journalist to explain why a bombshell leaked probity report into the opening of the new Queen’s Wharf casino would not be released to the public.
The Queensland government supported an application for a Supreme Court injunction.
Read the full article here
