MEDIA STATEMENT
28 October 2026
Today’s $260 million fine imposed on The Star Entertainment Group for repeated breaches of anti-money laundering laws is a stark reminder of why I fought to stop a casino being built on the Sunshine Coast.
When the former Sunshine Coast Council administration pursued a casino as part of the Maroochydore CBD development, I stood alongside our community and fought it tooth and nail.
We won that fight, while today’s news reinforces why it mattered.
Our collective opposition was about protecting the character of the Sunshine Coast, protecting families from gambling harm and keeping crime and money laundering risks associated with casinos away from our community.
I began a petition in December 2017 and took the fight to Federal Parliament. Thousands of residents signed, and locals made their opposition overwhelmingly clear at my public forums.
They understood that the promise of investment and development came with a price our community should not have to pay.
Today, the Federal Court has imposed that $260 million penalty on Star over serious and repeated failures to comply with laws designed to prevent money laundering.
The court heard that a man with known criminal links funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars through the casino. Justice Cameron Moore described Star’s conduct as “egregious” and said the breaches were “not mere oversights from time to time”.
These are precisely the kinds of risks I warned about when I opposed a casino on the Coast.
The Sunshine Coast is a wonderful place to live, work, raise a family and visit. Our future should be built on backing local businesses, creating worthwhile jobs and protecting the lifestyle people love.
We do not need a casino to put us on the map. Not then, not now, not ever.
I remain proud to have led that campaign, and grateful to every resident who stood with us. Together, we protected something worth fighting for.
Not once have any of my political opponents, be they the Greens, Climate 200 funded Teals, Labor or One Nation – ever publicly backed my opposition to the building of a cassino on the Sunshine Coast. Locals have a right to know why.
[ENDS]
Media Contact: Brendan West – 0402 556 646 – Brendan.west@aph.gov.au