Mike Baird dropped into Sydney’s 2Day FM breakfast show this morning with Rove McManus and Sam Frost and probably left a little disheveled after a grilling from former Bachelorette Frost.
The trio chatted about the NSW lockout laws and while things started polite, Frost eventually offered her opinion on exactly what she thinks the government are doing by imposing a 1.30am lockout on venues, excluding The Star Casino.
“I’ve got a little theory,” she began.
“I think that the Star Casino and Barangaroo pay the government a lot of money…so that once they close down everything else you’ve got no other choice than go to the Star or Barangaroo and then they make more money and then you make more money. That’s what I think’s happening, that’s what I think this is all about.”
Unsurprisingly Baird said nope, that’s not the reason but he failed to give a real reason why the casinos are not in the lockout zone.
“I’ve met with the families who’ve lost kids in violence on the streets,” he said.
“There’s lots of views around this and a lot of things have been thrown at me in this…those that know me know know my motivations and they’re not that.”
Maybe those who know Baird would be better equipped to tell Frost exactly what his motivations are.
Still, Baird said he’d be “open to” expanding the lockout zone to include the casinos if the review currently being conducted by High Court Justice Ian Callinan finds that it is necessary. Frost also prodded Baird about when we should expect any action to be taken on the review and he said “before the end of the year”.
Thousands of protestors are set to march on the Star Casino this weekend in a bid to stop political donations from the casino and gambling industries. According to the organisers of the rally Reclaim The Streets, between 1998 and 2011 The Star made over $847,950 worth of political donations in Australia.
“These casinos have bought their way into a free pass, while at the same time funneling all of the late night trade into their highly lucrative gambling halls,” organisers said.
“We are marching to the casino to highlight the gross hypocrisy of the government and the craven interests of The Star and Crown Casino.”
10,000 people are expected to march and we reckon Frosty might be one of them.
Watch: Sam Freezes Out Mike Baird
In case you missed it, Sam Frost got a little Frosty with Premier Mike Baird during their chat. What do you think of the casinos being exempt from the #LockoutLaws?
Posted by Rove and Sam on Monday, 14 March 2016
