If you’re a large, predatory gambling business desperate to ‘socially wash’ some of the stink off your reputation, here’s an idea that sounds a lot like Christmas.

Our Council-run Connecting Noosa Christmas Convoy, now in its fourth year, is about as wholesome, ‘feelgood’ and media-friendly as it gets; Santa touring the shire, a convoy of emergency services personnel and lots of excited kids and families at the side of the road.

How else could we gift wrap this special Noosa week in December? How about our Council partnering with Noosa’s giant gambling venue, the Tewantin-Noosa RSL club that boasts no less than 195 poker machines…far and away the biggest in Noosa Shire.

The faces of the PR people at this ‘pokie palace’ must have lit up like a Christmas tree when this opportunity presented itself thanks to an extraordinary example of mismanagement and ethical drift in our Council.

The giant gambling venue right across the road from Noosa Council in Tewantin is now listed as a “community support partner” in the convoy, and what fabulous PR value it’s getting for a small outlay.  Lots of mentions in Council media releases, on Council’s website, and – as our Council says “Thanks to Hot91, ZINC96 and Tewantin Noosa RSL, there will be plenty of giveaways at each of the scheduled stops.” 

The Christmas Convoy was launched by Noosa Council four years ago, when then-Mayor Clare Stewart announced it as “an initiative of Noosa Council with the support of Noosa’s local emergency services.” At that stage the ‘Corporate partners’ were radio station HOT91 and Cricks Noosa.

A damaging local RSL war in need of some PR spin

It’s fair to say Noosa’s biggest ‘Pokie Palace’ is in need of all the PR damage control it can buy.  

Our biggest suburban ‘casino’ has been at war with its own RSL sub-branch members, and this has reached the point of ‘lawyers-at-20-paces’ and the angry standoff that has the RSL sub-branch members meeting at Tewantin’s Royal Mail hotel across the road instead of the pokie club that bears their name.

As this nasty, internecine war plays out in the Tewantin trenches, across Australia a larger battle is underway between the RSL and the giant gambling venues that use RSL branding.

The national head of the Returned and Services League of Australia has backed a push to stop licensed clubs from using the RSL letters in their names amid internal division over whether poker machines should be phased out of the venues altogether.

The RSL national president, Greg Melick, said the veterans’ charity was concerned its name was being used by “organisations that don’t share our values” and he’s thrown his support behind the NSW branch president, Mick Bainbridge, who called for gambling clubs to stop using the RSL name because he said it was creating confusion between the charity and pokies venues.

How the stain of gambling money is washed through our community groups

Of Noosa Shire’s 522 poker machines, no less than 195 – nearly 40 percent – are in the sprawling Tewantin Noosa club, raking in an estimated $15.6 million per annum. (based on the widely accepted figure of $80,000 per annum from each machine in clubs)

The club’s much-publicised boast that it hands out $400,000 to the ‘community’ may sound generous to the uninitiated, but it’s estimated to be only around 2.5% of their huge poker machine take, syphoned from the local community – much of it from so-called ‘problem’ gamblers and their distressed families.

The PR modus operandi is a familiar one in the world’s biggest, most addicted gambling nation.  Small pots of gambling profits are handed out to local community groups struggling to pay their power bills.  In return, the volunteer groups are expected to spread the word about this ‘largesse’.  Often the social media ‘thank you notes’ are clearly written by the gambling club itself.

This ‘social washing’ of the stain of gambling profits is simply part of the cost of doing business for the big pokie clubs.  But every now and then a PR bonanza comes along.  In this case, it’s provided by a Noosa Council that appears to have lost its ethical navigation lights.

Ethical drift. A story of three mayors and three Noosa Councils

Here’s a simple three-part example of what might be called an arc of ‘ethical drift’ in our Noosa Council.

2018. Ethical leadership in a well-run Council.

It was a proud moment when our little Noosa Council – under Tony Wellington’s leadership – stood tall and made national headlines by getting Queensland councils to agree to lobby for legislative reform to give them more oversight over the local ‘creep’ of poker machines, and Noosa became the first Council in Queensland to become a member of the Alliance for Gambling Reform.

2021. A secretive backdown in a splintered Council.  

The Noosa Council CEO – under Mayor Clare Stewart – quietly backed out of the Alliance for Gambling Reform membership, using increased ‘membership costs’ as a justification.

Most Councillors were unaware of this decision by their own council, and the story only came to light when reported by Noosa Matters in 2023.

2024. Noosa Council ‘partners’ with the shire’s biggest poker machine operator.

The Noosa Council-run Christmas Convoy partners with Noosa’s biggest poker machine operator, providing them with an invaluable PR opportunity involving children, families and emergency services personnel.

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How can our Council stop gambling with its own reputation?

Noosa Matters can confirm that several well-known supporters of the Wilkie Council are ‘gobsmacked’ by the ignorance and lack of ethical filters within Council that led to the decision to ‘partner’ in a major Council-managed community initiative with the shire’s biggest gambling business.

This is more than just a naive call by a Council staffer.  It’s a sign of a Council that’s not firing on all cylinders.  A Council that is lacking ethical guide rails. Why isn’t there a filter in place that sets off alarm bells when a clear ethical line is crossed?  Why isn’t there someone in the Comms section with the radar to see when a reputational risk presents itself?  What is the CEO doing?  Why did the Mayor sign off on the Media Release?

It’s clear this Council decision needs to be reversed.  And then Noosa Council must ensure it has management systems in place to prevent these sorts of ethical lapses.  As they say, it’s not rocket science.  What it needs is leadership.