Most Condemnable Action : Chinese high-rollers being offered wombat hunts
A company enticing Chinese high-rollers to Australia with the promise of shooting wombats and other creatures has been denounced by a Greens senator.
Tom Zhou, who according to Nine news reports organised junkets for high-rollers at Crown Casino, was named in parliament as the owner of the rural property in Murrindindi.
The company’s website, translated from Mandarin, said the first thing tourists should feel in Australia was to be a wilderness hunter in the mountains.
“Even if you don’t have any shooting experience, it doesn’t matter,” it said. “With professional guidance, you will be a great shooter!
“Hares, foxes, wombats, wild ducks, red deer, sambars… A variety of wild animals to spend a happy holiday with you.”
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the allegations were part of an evolving scandal surrounding Crown.
“This is beyond bizarre,” she told parliament. “This is stranger than fiction. Why on earth is this government doing absolutely nothing to really crack down on this hideous and obscene behaviour?”
She said high-rollers were being fast-tracked through the visa process, picking up prostitutes, getting access to drugs and going to a luxury hunting lodge to shoot wombats.
Crown faces revelations it had a “hotline” to Australian consulates to fast-track visa applications for big-spending gamblers flying in from China, which the company strongly rejects.
In question time, the government’s Senate leader, Mathias Cormann, was asked about the advertised wombat shooting and the Crown allegations.
“The Australian government takes allegations of illegal activity very seriously,” he said.
“Everyone, of course, is required to abide by the Australian law, which includes casino operators, public officials and visitors to our country.”
He reiterated the government had referred the Crown allegations to the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity.
But Hanson-Young said the inquiry would not look at wombat hunting.
“Does the government really think that it is appropriate to fast-track Chinese gambling billionaires through our border protection processes so that they can come to Australia and shoot our wildlife?” she said.
“No one in their right mind would say this is appropriate.”
Crown said the “junkets” were not related to the company.
“They are independent operators who arrange for their customers to visit many casinos globally,” its board of directors said in a statement on Thursday.
“Crown itself has a robust process for vetting junket operators, including a combination of probity, integrity and police checks, and Crown undertakes regular reviews of these operators in the light of new or additional information.”
