Blog Day 571 - Tuesday 26 October 2021 - Day 05 of Covid Lockdown V6.0 Lite

 Now for the news that you have all been waiting for.........still no haircut!

The royal commission into the operations of the Crown Casino here in Melbourne has been handed down and as expected it has been incredibly critical of the operations of the casino.

The royal commissioner, former Federal Court judge, Ray Finkelstein, known fondly around the legal system as The Fink, has been damming about the operation of the casino at all levels of management from the board down.  

Below is an extract from the royal commissioner's report;

"Within a very short time, the commission discovered that for many years Crown Melbourne had engaged in conduct that is, in a word, disgraceful. This is a convenient shorthand for describing conduct that was variously illegal, dishonest, unethical and exploitative.

The catalogue of wrongdoing is alarming, all the more so because it was engaged in by a regulated entity whose privilege to hold a casino licence is dependent upon it being, at all times, a person of good character, honesty and integrity".

I am sure that given the nature of the report Finkelstein would have recommended that Crown lose it's licence to run the casino, however he was aware of the impact that this would have had on the employees, innocent third parties and state coffers.  Remember Crown employs over 11,500 staff and is the largest single site employer in the state.

I won't go into all of his recommendations but he has recommended that the Crown be allowed to continue to operate the casino under incredibly strong restrictions including the government appoint a "Special Manager" to oversee all operations of the casino up to and including the power to veto board decisions, for at least the next two years.  

James Packer and CPH have to sell down their 37% holding in Crown to less than 5% in the next two years.  You may recall the commissioner enquiring into the casino licence in NSW was particularly critical of the influence that Packer had over the board and management of the company although he no longer held any position on the board or in the management of the company.

In a surprising move the government has actually imposed far stronger conditions and possible penalties on Crown than those recommended by the Commissioner. The penalties appear to be very draconian, with possible fines of up to $100 million, and in my opinion properly so.  

And for a final quote from The Fink's report;

 Crown Melbourne’s board failed to carry out one of its prime responsibilities; namely, to ensure that the organisation satisfied its legal and regulatory obligations. 

Many senior executives involved in the misconduct were indifferent to their ethical, moral and sometimes legal obligations. Some were motivated by a drive for profit. Some simply did what they did because they could.

If at the end of the two year period if the regulator isn't convinced that Crown is operating properly and legally its licence will be withdrawn immediately.

In further news, the state government is intending to introduce new legislation to parliament which if passed appears to give wide ranging powers to the premier of the state during periods of national/state emergencies.  I haven't seen much about it yet so will report on this legislation in a little more detail in the next episode of the blog.

And now for a bit of good news, the daily new infections in Victoria seem to be declining with significant reductions over the last few days.  In the last 24 hours Victoria reported 1,510 new infections and 1,461 the day before, compared to 1,935 the day before that.  

Hospitalisation rates are still increasing with 817 Victorians in hospital with the virus including 147 in ICU and 88 on ventilators.  There were 4 deaths reported due to the virus in Victoria in the last 24 hours and 7 the day before.

Victoria received the results of 56,000 tests in the last 24 hours.

Corona Virus Daily Stats – 26 October 2021 – Day 05 of Covid Lockdown V6.0 Lite

Date	Aus Infected	Aus Increase	Aus 1st Dose Vacc	Vic Infected	Vic Increase	NSW Increase	*Aus Active Infection	NSW Active Infection	Vic Active Infection	Aus 2nd Dose Vacc
01/10	107,181	2,064	77.8%	38,476	1,143	866	21,114	9,862	10,944	54.2%
02/10		2,360		39,749	1,488
03/10	111,388	1,928	79%	41,128	1,220	668	21,378	9,215	11,785	56%
04/10					1,377	623
05/10	115,800	2,406	79.9%	44,251	1,763	608	23,376	8,571	14,368	57.4%
06/10					1,413	594
07/10	120,079	2,272	80.5%	47,302	1,638	587	23,435	7,868	15,074	58.4%
08/10					1,823	648
09/10	125,080	2,574	81.9%	51,012	1,965	581	24,984	7,296	17,199	61.2%
10/10					1,890	479
11/10	129,567	2,144	82.2%	54,470	1,612	498	26,276	6,747	19,012	61.9%
12/10					1,466	360
13/10	133,444	2,069	82.8%	57,470	1,572	446	26,479	6,055	19,861	63.4%
14/10					2,297	407
15/10	138,720	2,615	83.6%	61,869	2,179	400	27,123	5,253	21,324	65.4%
16/10					1,993
17/10	143,135	2,172	84.4%	65,605	1,838	301	29,087	5,131	23,376	67.2%
18/10					1,903
19/10	147,301	2,046	84.8%	69,206	1,749	273	27,121	4,168	22,476	69.3&
20/10					1,842	283
21/10	152,024	2,642	85.8%	73,233	2,235	374	28,577	5,220	22,889	70.8%
22/10	154,489	2,552	86.1%	75,340	2,189	345	28,714	5,050	23,230	71.7%
23/10
24/10	158,604	2,240	86.5%	78,821	1,935	296	30,074	4,626	24,993	72.5%
25/10					1,461
26/10	162,026	1,808	86.8%	81,662	1,510	284	29,446	4,399	24,715	73.4%
27/10

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – 26 Oct 2021 – Day 05 of Covid Lockdown V6.0 Lite
Date	Aus New Infection	Aus Hospital	Aus ICU	Aus Ventilate	Vic New Infection	Vic Hospital	Vic ICU	Vic Ventilate	AUS Daily Deaths	Vic Daily Deaths
01/10	2,066	1,483	300	166	1,143	395	87	59	20	3
02/10	2,360	1,468	302	156	1,488	429	97	54	12	2
03/10	1,928	1,494	298	153	1,220	476	98	57	13	3
04/10
05/10	2,406	1,535	298	161	1,763	517	101	66	11	4
06/10
07/10	2,272	1,517	305	165	1,638	564	115	74	10	2
08/10					1,823	620	114	76	16	5
09/10	2,574	1,437	288	163	1,965	578	117	83	16	5
10/10									11	5
11/10	2,144	1,490	295	170	1,612	677	133	94	16	8
12/10										8
13/10	2,069	1,463	306	173	1,572	705	146	92	17	13
14/10					2,297	706	147	100
15/10	2,615	1,413	311	183	2,179	695	157	101	11	6
16/10
17/10	2,172	1,440	299	170	1,838	777	151	94	16	6
18/10						851	155	103	12	7
19/10	2,046	1,420	288	174	1,749	784	149	100	15	11
20/10
21/10	2,642	1,343	276	165	2,335	779	141	96	13	12
22/10	2,552	1,307	281	166	2,189	784	145	94	21	16
23/10
24/10	2,240	1,312	277	165	1,935	787	146	93	15	11
25/10					1,461				44	7
26/10	1,808	1,315	266	150	1,510	817	147	88	5	4
27/10