A bid to keep secret large parts of an agreement with James Packer's Crown Resorts over the planned VIP casino at Barangaroo is set to be tested by an independent arbiter appointed by the NSW Parliament.
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The Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority last month released a tranche of documents relating to the decision to award Crown a licence to run a "restricted gambling facility" at Barangaroo from November 2019.
The documents that were released set out the rules for the casino, including who may enter, the types of games that may be played, minimum bet limits and tax rates. Most of the information had previously been made public.
But large sections of one document, the "VIP gaming management agreement", have been censored by the authority, which claims their release could be commercially damaging to Crown.
Last month, Greens MP John Kaye won support in the NSW upper house to have an unredacted version of the agreement made available to upper house MPs.
However, privilege was claimed over the agreement, which means only upper house MPs are allowed to view it and are prohibited from disclosing its contents.
Privilege was also claimed over a submission in support of the claim of privilege. According to the acting secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Simon Smith, this is because the submission reveals "information that is also privileged".
On Wednesday Dr Kaye said he would seek to have key parts of the privilege claim overturned by asking the independent arbiter, Keith Mason, QC, to adjudicate.
If Mr Mason - a former president of the NSW Court of Appeal - agrees with Dr Kaye's arguments, he can recommend to the Parliament that the censored details under challenge be released.
Dr Kaye said that claiming "commercial-in-confidence" was "not a sufficient excuse for hiding parts of a key document".
"Any new casino would create substantial management risks, yet agreements with Crown signed on behalf of the state of NSW remain shrouded in commercial-in-confidence mystery," he said.
"There is a valid public interest in knowing what has been agreed to and how it will affect the management of the casino."
Dr Kaye will write to the clerk of the Legislative Council, David Blunt, this week seeking Mr Mason's adjudication.
