Council takes leaking of Mayor letter to ICAC

UPDATED ERWIN CHLANDA reports

The town council held a secret meeting at 5pm yesterday to discuss a letter from Mayor Matt Paterson to the Commonwealth Bank, asking it to support the major owner of poker machines in Alice Springs, Iris Capital.

The Alice Springs News published an exclusive report about that letter last Friday.

The report contained two images of the letter and it is reproduced in full today (at right). The council yesterday decided to keep the leaked letter "in confidential".

The News is not disclosing the source of the letter and no source was revealed at the meeting.

The News understands the council decided to make a complaint to the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption (ICAC).

Discussion centred around making an example of people not respecting the council’s often excessive reliance on confidentiality, and that the source may have been an elected member, a council staff or someone outside the council.

Former Deputy Mayor Eli Melky (pictured) said today: "The key element is trust and when confidentiality is breached then trust is breached. That leads to a difficult work environment."

The News expects to receive information from the government about the number of pokies in the Iris-owned casino and how much a year people are losing on pokies in Alice Springs.

There is much debate about the impact of poker machines on the community of Alice Springs, including a comment by RAINER CHLANDA.