Newman Government in secret talks with Hong Kong magnate Tony Fung for $3b casino complex in Cairns HONG Kong billionaire Tony Fung is privately lobbying the Newman Government for support to build a $3 billion Macau-style casino and five-star resort complex in tropical north Queensland. His grand vision is to build a new casino, five luxury hotels, the biggest aquarium in the southern hemisphere, a golf course, residential villas and lagoons on a beachside site in Cairns. The Hong Kong banker, from one of Asia's wealthiest families, is the latest high roller to make a bid for a new casino licence in Queensland and has recruited former premier Rob Borbidge to head negotiations. His plan for a multibillion-dollar project to revitalise the tourist mecca on the Great Barrier Reef comes with Australia's richest man James Packer also lobbying for a new casino licence to build a $1 billion complex in Brisbane. Premier Campbell Newman and other senior ministers are believed to have held informal discussions with the billionaire on the project in eight months of behind-closed-doors negotiations. If the project wins State Government approval, subject to the Foreign Investment Review Board, and a green light on social, environmental, and economic impact studies, it will be the single biggest tourism project in the state. Justin Fung, chief executive of Australian Group Investments, in a Sunday Mail exclusive, has confirmed the Fung Family secured a five-year option over a 283ha parcel of land at Yorkeys Knob, north of Cairns. Hong Kong banker Tony Fung wants to build a Macau-style casino, five luxury hotels and the biggest aquarium in the southern hemisphere at sleepy Yorkeys Knob, just north of Cairns. He said the family, through its 4JS Group of Companies, was "assessing a range of potential tourism and leisure development opportunities for the site" on top of other significant investments in Queensland. "We look forward to engaging with all stakeholders to ensure any development is sympathetic to the site and the region and provides a much-needed boost to the Queensland tourism industry," he said. Under the plan, the former site of the failed 1980s mega-style resort Rainbow Harbour development will be transformed from existing canefields into a multi-structure casino similar to those in Macau and Las Vegas. It will also include up to five 300-room luxury hotels with talks to be held with the Peninsula, Mandarin Oriental, Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons and Banyan Tree chains. The Fung family has engaged teams of consultants including a consortium of architects to prepare concept designs; a flood mitigation report; and KPMG, to conduct an economic cost benefit analysis to the region and state. This comes ahead of a formal presentation to the Newman Government fronted by lobbyist and former Nationals leader Mr Borbidge in Brisbane next month. "Obviously the casino is the most controversial aspect in obtaining a new licence," an inside source said. And this whole multibillion-dollar investment needs the support of project-specific legislation before it gets the go-ahead. Tony Fung Wing-cheung, 61, who built the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, is the second son of the founder of Sun Hung Kai Securities, which is worth $70 billion. The financier runs his own Yu Ming Investments and has invested in Queensland for 15 years and owns several properties and businesses in the state. State MP Michael Trout, who has been a driving force behind the project in his Barron River electorate, said: "It has the potential to completely reinvigorate the tourism industry in Cairns and Queensland."