Page 1508 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 April 1991
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Mr Duby: Do not tell Dennis.
MR CONNOLLY: Indeed, if Mr Stevenson were here, as he increasingly is not these days, he would no doubt object. What a great piece of social reform this is. It is a very simple, effectively one-line Bill to make the playing of two-up legal on Anzac Day. Mr Speaker, the Opposition has no difficulty with this proposal. In effect, it is writing into the law what has been acknowledged to be the practice in this Territory and, indeed, in most other places in Australia for many years.
The playing of two-up is unlawful throughout Australia, apart from in casinos - a touchy subject to get on to today. The Government has managed to destroy and stuff up the casino proposal; so we will not have lawful two-up in a casino, but we are going to have lawful two-up in clubs and community groups on Anzac Day. While I say that we have no problem with this; I wonder whether it was absolutely necessary to have this Bill.
I cannot imagine any sensible police officer who would enforce the existing law, particularly against a service club playing two-up on Anzac Day; but it probably does make sense to move towards regularising what is the practice. It is not sound administration to be turning a blind eye to breaches of the law. This Bill, based on the New South Wales model, certainly makes it clear that it does not encourage the commercial playing of two-up; it encourages the playing of two-up at clubs, with such profits as may derive from the game going to charities and service organisations. I imagine that a number of the clubs around town might be looking at special funds to donate the proceeds of two-up perhaps to charities like Legacy or other groups, and that is a good thing.
Mr Speaker, two-up is, of course, as the Attorney mentioned, a traditional Australian game. Its antecedents seem to go back well into colonial history; but it achieved a particular fame, I suppose, as a game played by Australian service personnel during the First and Second World Wars. It is because of that connection that Anzac Day has always been a traditional day on which two-up is played. I can recall being in Sydney on Anzac Day some years ago and seeing a school operating in Hyde Park - something that one would not see on any other day of the year, something which would be a major offence on any other day of the year, and yet there it was.
As I say, that managed to operate annually in Sydney from at least 1919 up to 1989 without an amendment to the law such as this one. It has, no doubt, operated in clubs and places where ex-servicemen congregate in Canberra every year from Canberra's foundation to the present without it being seen as necessary to have such a Bill. As I say, we will not oppose the Bill. We just note the irony that this is a piece of legislation that the Government has seen fit
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