Page 5774 - Week 18 - Tuesday, 10 December 1991
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Mr Speaker, the committee I chaired looked at this issue in some depth. It was able, as I think Mr Berry has indicated, to quantify quite precisely, perhaps overprecisely, the number of people expected to slip into an excessive gambling mode because of the advent of a casino in the ACT. The number was 86. We then went on to recommend that there be an upgrading of services. We also indicated that that upgrading of services should occur irrespective of whether a casino was approved.
Of course, Mr Speaker, I was also a member of the Alliance Government which took office a few months later and which considered this very question as an issue for new budget initiatives at the time of the Alliance budget preparations in 1990. I have to say that it is always difficult to pursue all matters that are considered to be good ideas at one time. All matters at once is a difficult proposition. We certainly found that to be the case when we were formulating our 1990 budget. Dr Kinloch, of course, was part of the Alliance Government and, as I recall, was an advocate for the recommendations of the committee that I had chaired the previous year.
However, Mr Speaker, it was not possible, in the light of the money available to the Alliance Government and the budget constraints that we operated under, to pursue that proposal at that time. It was decided, as I recall, by the Alliance Government that there should be a consideration of this issue afresh in the event that the casino which gave rise to that recommendation was to be established.
That remains my personal position, Mr Speaker. I believe that a casino in the ACT would guarantee the need, the demand, for such a service, and I believe that it would be important, indeed imperative, for an ACT government which oversaw the establishment of a casino at the same time to consider the establishment of those gambling services. I have to say, though, that I think the decision we made in 1990 not to proceed with gambling services before a casino was established was perhaps an unfortunate but necessary decision to be made in the circumstances, given the ACT's lack of resources.
Of course, it is proposed that the casino will generate considerable public revenue in the way of a premium for the allocation of the site for the construction of a casino and also from taxes on gambling which would be generated by that activity taking place. I believe that it is important for any government which administers those revenues to take some steps to provide for the use of those moneys in responding to problems which clearly are given rise to by the establishment of that revenue-producing activity in the ACT.
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