Page 6162 - Week 19 - Tuesday, 17 December 1991
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That then leaves approximately 50 clubs which are going to jump over that one per cent barrier and pay 22.5 per cent on every dollar earned after that. In the ACT we have, in effect, only six big clubs. Those six big clubs pay substantial amounts of revenue to the Government as a result of their poker machine turnover.
I can say right now that if I had been Minister I would have varied this ratio of tax to include an intermediate schedule to provide for a smaller rate of taxation between, shall I say, $8,000 and $16,000. I would have provided for a reduction in that area so that the medium to small clubs would have been able to keep more revenue and perhaps be able to keep their doors open in these tough times.
The club industry currently is facing tough times. In the last couple of weeks we have seen a couple of organisations, including a quite famous club in the ACT, the Daramalan Rugby and Social Club, close their doors for the last time. Indeed, one of the major clubs in the Territory is currently operating on the basis of being in receivership. A club that I am sure is dear to the heart of our Chief Minister and members of the Government opposite is also experiencing grave trading difficulties at this time. Indeed, it is not trading at a profit either.
Anything that the ACT Government could have done to assist and protect small clubs, who still have to employ the same number of people, in a lot of ways, to operate the facilities in the club, and who still have to provide services to their members on the same basis that large clubs do, would have been most welcome, I am sure. I would have expected, given the vitality that the club industry generates within the Territory, that the major clubs, the large payers of revenue, would have been happy to share a little of the burden to ensure that some of the smaller clubs do not go under, which I think would be a loss to the community as a whole.
However, I am also advised that the rates which apply in this case will be approximately revenue neutral, as close to revenue neutral as you can get when you are fiddling with tax rates, et cetera. Some clubs are going to be worse off to the tune of $5,000 and some are going to be $5,000 better off. I guess that is just the luck of the draw, depending on their figures. Given the fact that it is revenue neutral and that these amendments to the rates of taxation take into account the fact that that annual licence fee is no longer required, which has been a real problem for clubs for many years, I guess that we have no real option but to support this piece of legislation.
Perhaps this variation of the tax schedules, et cetera, should be something which the new Assembly of 1992 could look at. I put on notice again that any future government that comes into existence in 1992 would be well served, and would be well serving the community, by looking at the way
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