The chief executive of ClubsNSW has “unreservedly” apologised for his comments on the NSW Premier’s Catholicism influencing his desire for gambling reform.
John Landis said he “should not have referred to the Premier’s faith” and had personally apologised to Dominic Perrottet.
“This was not a premeditated comment or an intentional attack on the Premier personally, rather it was a poor attempt to explain that there is a lack of evidence for the policy and the Premier is a moral person who intrinsically wants to help those who are causing themselves harm,” he said in a statement.
Speaking to Nine Newspapers on Monday, Mr Landis accused Mr Perrottet of having “very little understanding” of gambling reform. This comes as regulations around poker machines, in particular cashless gaming, have become a key topic ahead of the March 25 state election.
“He’s going to struggle because he can’t satisfy everybody. I think it’s fair to say that the Premier has very little understanding of this issue and has acted from his conservative Catholic gut rather than based on evidence,” Mr Landis said.
Speaking to Ben Fordham on 2GB on Tuesday morning, the Premier said Mr Landis’ comments were an attack on Catholics and other people of faith.
“If you replace the word Catholic with Islamic, Jewish or Hindu, you’d be resigning before you got to work this morning,” Mr Perrottet said.
“It’s not about faith and people shouldn’t attack people’s faith in relation to decision making.”
MPs call for Landis to resign
Mr Landis’ comments have been criticised by politicians across the political spectrum, with calls for him to resign from independent MPs Helen Dalton and Alex Greenwich.
“Josh Landis’ position as CEO of ClubsNSW is beyond untenable and it’s time for him to go. I’ve had my policy disputes with the Premier on social reforms, but I would never attack him because of his faith,” Mr Greenwich tweeted.
Ms Dalton shared a similar tweet: “It’s time for Josh Landis to go, ClubsNSW need a new CEO and a new direction away from bullying, intimidation and religious discrimination.
NSW Opposition Leader Chris Minns called the language “sectarian and discriminatory”.
“I frankly haven’t heard anything like this for decades inside our political system and our political conversation. I think the CEO of ClubsNSW should retract and apologise for those comments immediately,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
“There’s no place for that in NSW politics, and we shouldn’t be introducing it right now.”
So far, the Premier has yet to announce the Coalition‘s gaming reform policies; however, he has hinted that it will work on a cashless gaming model that involves a card with a set daily limit. Mr Perrottet has yet to confirm how much punters could spend; however, a daily cap between $1000 to $15000 has been speculated on.
Earlier this month, Mr Minns put forward Labor’s gambling reforms that will focus on an eight-point strategy. This includes a $500-a-day poker machine feed-in limit, a cashless gaming trial on 500 machines, a ban on political donations from clubs with poker machines and gaming signage at venues.
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