Regrets And Chardonnays: I've Had A Few, Says Thorpey

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday April 5, 2008

Andrew Clennell State Political Editor

JOHN THORPE is not a man prone to admitting mistakes. But ahead of his retirement on Tuesday, the outspoken Australian Hotels Association president has admitted his decision to oppose Lord Mayor Clover Moore's small bars proposal and pronounce that Sydneysiders did not want to "sit in a hole and drink chardonnay and read a book" was an error.

"I must admit I made a mistake," Mr Thorpe said in an interview with the Herald. "That mistake was I couldn't believe you wanted more bars. I thought we had too many bars."

It is now history that after a sustained campaign by Councillor Moore and the Herald, the Government adopted a proposal to allow more wine bars to sprout with lower liquor licence fees and a less complicated application process. At the same time, proposals for extended trading hours backed by hotels were dumped.

It was a big blow to Mr Thorpe - and the association - but he insists he is leaving on his own terms. As an act of good sportsmanship, he posed for a photo - wine in hand at the Bambini Trust wine cafe in the city yesterday.

In the interview to mark his departure after more than 10 years in the job, Mr Thorpe, 68, also: Says he regularly spoke to Labor's former general secretary, Mark Arbib, to attempt to get policy results, rather than talk directly to the Government, showing the power Mr Arbib wielded and the importance of political donations; Blames generation Y for problems with violence outside pubs and says they just have not experienced enough "adversity"; and Credits former gaming minister Richard Face - whose career ended in disgrace after he was fined for lying to the Independent Commission Against Corruption - as the man who pushed the idea of poker machines in pubs and made it happen.

Mr Thorpe said the Carr government's move in late 1996 to allow the machines in pubs saved the industry. He has no regrets about it - no matter what many Sydneysiders may think about eyesores in their local hotels: "We were broke, the industry was broke, the AHA was broke, we had no money, we had nothing."

He says this is why Labor was owed so much and why hotels have donated millions over the years. "The reason is simple [for attending fund-raisers]. Every concession the industry has can be given with the stroke of a pen and can be taken away with the stroke of a pen. You know what licences are like. You have a licence yourself and the Government can take that licence from you.

"The Labor state government gave us the machines knowing full well the industry was about to collapse. ... [It was like] 'You helped me when I was on skid row ... there was a sense of gratitude ... I believe we satisfied the role we played by assisting Labor in the first election [1999], maybe the second election [2003]."

The industry had made sure it donated to other parties, including independents, but had a special loyalty to Labor.

"I believe we're small business. We should really be on the side of the Coalition [but] there has been nothing by the Liberal Party or the Coalition that has ever assisted the hotel industry at a state level." Mr Thorpe was association president from 1993 to 1995 and from 1999 to this year. He says he arrived at a time hotels were going under in the face of fierce competition from clubs: "We were eating the paint off the wall, and I said we weren't, we were past that, we were down to the chipboard."

He ends at a time the hotel industry is awash with money, but with the association attempting to remake its image - with a chief executive, Sally Fielke, and likely new president, Scott Leach, in their 30s - after its failure to get policy changes from the Government last year. Mr Leach, 36, who will run for the job next week, said: "I think it's a unique opportunity for us to renew, refresh and reconnect with the community."

Even Mr Thorpe admits it is time for change, welcoming the Premier's plan to ban political donations altogether and a fresh approach to his association. "I'm very tired of the innuendo [around donations] that is attached to us today," he says.

Speaking for the first time about the fall of the former Liberal leader John Brogden after his indiscretions at an AHA party in 2005, Mr Thorpe expresses sadness. Mr Brogden had to stand down after pinching a female journalist on the backside, propositioning another and calling Bob Carr's wife, Helena, a "mail order bride".

Mr Brogden attempted suicide. He now speaks publicly about depression.

Mr Thorpe says: "I mean, in my lifestyle today, nobody takes offence at somebody pinching a woman on the backside. Nobody's going to shoot you for that. It's not a nice thing to do but to have spoken about Helena Carr [like that], that is just absolutely disgusting. She is a lady, she is the loveliest person I'd ever meet."

Mr Thorpe believes Mr Brogden would have won the 2007 election were it not for the indiscretion. He says of the current Liberal leader, Barry O'Farrell: "If anybody is a likely contender for premier in this state, it's Barry O'Farrell ... Probably I think if one remark could be made about Barry it would be: 'Barry, you should have made your run some years ago.' "

He calls Morris Iemma a "gentleman", and says Bob Carr was more interested in books and the American civil war than pokies and would "put me in my place very quickly, no nonsense".

He describes Mr Arbib as "tough" and "hard" but saves the most interesting assessment for Frank Sartor, the Planning Minister, who was assisting the health minister on cancer when Mr Thorpe had to deal with him on the smoking ban in hotels.

"I have never been in meetings where I've shouted and yelled and sworn [so much]," Mr Thorpe said. "At the end of the session, he would say, 'Listen, Thorpey, let's have a coffee and we'll sort this out tomorrow.' I walked outside and said, 'The bloke's nuts.'

"I've got a lot of admiration for Frank for the amount of pressure the man takes and the amount of pressure he's able to give you back ... I'd walk in and do business with him tomorrow. I'd know it'd be a shouting match and I'd know it would be unsavoury but it would get to a conclusion. That's something I've never experienced with anyone else."

He insists it is not trading hours that create pub violence but "Y generation" and mixing drugs with alcohol. He says this generation has had "no adversity, been given everything, everybody's happy, but ... wait until you shut them down, wait till you tell them you can't have this or you can't do that ... then watch them turn".

He says of the debate on extending trading hours: "I'm sick of violence. Nobody in my industry likes it. [But] if you open an outlet in New York, you open the door and they throw [the keys] in the gutter. They don't have the restrictions we have. You push 300 to 400 people onto the footpath [at closing time], it's just crazy stuff."

He believes he has helped to put his industry on the political map. "If nothing else, this association today is at least known in this state. It wasn't before."

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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