Page 940 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 26 July 1989
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In addition, there is the additional tourism flow-on from placing the casino development here on this site. The need for a central city hotel, with the soon-to-be opened convention centre, and a casino as a major tourist drawcard, as I am sure it will be, in a close proximity is clear. The increase in tourism that placing the casino on section 19 will bring about I think is irrefutable.
The third item we had to look at was "an assessment of the environmental impact of such a development and an assessment of the findings of the Caldwell Report". In a way, that is really what this committee had to do. The crux of the matter was to determine whether the Caldwell report about a casino development for Canberra, the social impact report that was brought down, really was accurate.
Of all the evidence that has come before us, I do not think anyone has been able to logically refute any of the arguments that are placed in that Caldwell report.
Dr Kinloch: Not so, Craig.
MR DUBY: I would like to think so, Dr Kinloch, but unfortunately I have to agree with the Caldwell report. The arguments in it in a lot of ways may be contentious, but they certainly stack up better than any arguments on the opposite point of view.
The Caldwell report closely examines the effect that having a casino will have on life in Canberra. That social impact study clearly demonstrates, as Mr Jensen pointed out, that there is a large need in this city right now to help people who are currently experiencing the problems of excessive gambling. But I think it also clearly demonstrates that the placing or establishment of a casino in Canberra will not lead to a large increase in excessive gambling. It will lead to a minute increase - I believe 11.4 per cent is the figure that people keep quoting - in excessive gambling. People do not realise that. When they think of 11.4 per cent, they automatically think that 11.4 per cent of Canberrans is an awful lot of people. That is not the case. We are talking about an 11.4 per cent increase in the current rate of excessive gambling.
The current rate of excessive gambling, I believe, is in the order of, but no-one can really be sure, one per cent of the population, with perhaps another one per cent who fluctuate, who might go mad over Christmas and then take it easy for the rest of the year. Who knows? But basically we are talking about 0.1 per cent of the population who are going to be adversely affected by the establishment of a casino in Canberra. When I look at the costs - and they are severe costs - and compare those with the benefits that are going to accrue to the community as a whole, I am afraid that I simply have to come down on the side of the community as a whole.
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