Federal named as backer

FEDERAL Hotels was last night named as the major bankroller of the Tasmanians for a Better Future lobby group.

The claim, by Green Leader Nick McKim, was angrily denied by the tourism and gaming giant.

Mr McKim used parliamentary privilege to allege that Federal put up more than half of the $100,000 spent by the group which campaigned heavily during the 2006 election on the issue of “stable majority government”.

It was widely seen as a pro-Labor front group whose backers have never been revealed.

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However, Federal Goup spokesman Brendan Blomeley rejected the claim outright.

He said neither the Federal Group nor the Farrell family and associated companies had been involved in the campaign.

“We categorically reject this baseless claim,” Mr Blomeley said. “Mr McKim should be ashamed for using parliamentary privilege to mount this scurrilous attack.”

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The ads were produced by Tasmanian media company Corporate Communications.

Greens senator Christine Milne lodged a complaint with the Public Relations Institute of Australia about the conduct of the company and its chief executive Tony Harrison but the institute concluded there was no case to answer.

Mr Harrison could not be contacted last night.

The prime-time TV and radio ads featured actors playing a Tasmanian blue-collar worker and a happy young family relishing their lifestyle and secure jobs. They called on Tasmanians to vote for a stable majority government.

The Government insisted it invested “absolutely no government money” in the secretive majority ad campaign.

In her election night speech, former Greens leader Peg Putt slammed the ads and those by the Exclusive Brethren as part of a “grubby smear campaign”.

Meanwhile, a Public Accounts Committee report has recommended that poker machine licences should be subject to an open tender process.

The suggestion comes amid revelations that Treasury officials strongly urged the Government to go to open tender before a 15-year poker machine monopoly was granted to the Federal Group in 2003.

Historian James Boyce has campaigned for years against the cosy deal between Federal and State Labor. He has written extensively on the issue for five years on Tasmanian Times. This last article contains links to earlier articles: Bullying has done its job: HERE

The Exclusive Brethren connection was first published on Tasmanian Times and Crikey in an exclusive story by Margaretta Pos: Exclusive attack on the Greens, HERE

Earlier: Bartlett at the centre of pokies deed, says Hodgman

Picture: Greg Farrell, Federal Chairman