Page 6038 - Week 18 - Thursday, 12 December 1991
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Mr Kaine: They gave the okay to the little car park at Lyons, though.
MS FOLLETT: Mr Kaine reminds me that the Rally approved the little car park at Lyons. After three years in this Assembly, I am afraid that I find that even less than a quick fix for the ACT's economic development. It is not a fix at all. It is a fact that the Rally are totally opposed to any sort of economic development in the ACT. I am amazed that they survived in coalition with the Liberal Party. But, of course, they survived only because they actually have no policies for economic development or for anything else. They abandon or reverse those policies that they mouth, at the first opportunity at which they are challenged. Far from my party losing seats over this, I think it will be the Rally that will lose all as a result of their performance.
MR COLLAERY (3.42): I am pleased to speak on this MPI. It is an excellent and very appropriate MPI. Historically, it may not be seen for what it is today, but I am very happy that an historian would put it on because I believe that history will show how accurate this is. It is accurate because many traditional Australians, many blue-collar Australians, many Australians who have served their country, oppose a casino. If you take a poll in this Territory on any Sunday you will come up with a resounding no. Both of you, who have displayed your collateral today, know that you would not win a vote on a Sunday as a result of this decision.
Let me quote from a very informed article which appeared in the Current Affairs Bulletin of September 1987. It said:
On the whole, Australian governments were very reluctant to be seen to promote casinos - no doubt mindful of the industry's unsavoury reputation ... Advocates of casinos emphasised their broad revenue-generating potential, presenting casino gambling as an innovative and dynamic growth industry which could promote post-war tourism and serve as a catalyst for regional economic growth.
The Left in the Labor Party, the traditional members of the Labor Party, kept the casino instinct down over 30 years. After Hawke came to power in 1983 the casino vestigial impulse got going again. It was not new; it started after the war in this country, as those of us who were close to the Labor movement as we grew up in places like Wollongong know. The Left has ratted on its policies. It has ratted so much that it is unbelievable. They are in a little internal turmoil on this today in Canberra, and I know. Mr Berry knows that I know. I can tell you that there are serious groans in the Left of the Labor Party.
The next question that we need to ask is whether having the Left in charge of a Labor government is economically responsible. Would a Liberal government in its own right in this Territory have gone ahead with a casino in the
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