Tony Fung’s AUD$8 billion Aquis resort casino proposal in Australia has had its environmental impact statement approved.
Queensland Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney welcomed the Queensland Coordinator General’s evaluation of the Environmental Impact Statement, saying that the project can proceed “subject to certain conditions.” Seeney added that the project has the potential to become an employment boon in the state, possibly creating as many as 20,000 new employment opportunities in Cairns alone.
The project still needs to be approved by the Cairns Regional Council and Aquis CEO Justin Fung has yet to confirm a starting date for construction of the project.
“The time frame has changed so many times since we started talking about this project, so at this point I think I’m just comfortable saying we want to start as soon as possible and to give a defined time line would be very difficult understanding the amount of variables involved in the approvals processes,” Fung said in a statement. Fung said the company remains fully committed to developing the resort, although it hasn’t filed the necessary paperwork to secure a casino license, two months after the supposed deadline to do so.
The younger Fung explained that the proposal continues to evolve and has had a number of different versions, especially after the planned acquisition of the Reef Casino Trust fell through last month. “We’re continuing to make those changes and we want to make sure that any proposal we submit is going to be comprehensive, thorough and accurate,” he added.
The Queensland government is waiting for the developer to submit its proposal and some government members have urged decision-makers to give Aquis a hard deadline to submit the proposal or face the possibility of reopening the casino license application to other developers.
“I just think that over the next couple of weeks, certainly as quickly as possible,” Cairns’ MP Gavin Kind said.
“I think we need to resolve internally just what time or time frames we’re willing to allow because the IRD submission deadline was the end of October and Aquis didn’t meet that deadline, despite us urging them to do so.”
