Page 6172 - Week 19 - Tuesday, 17 December 1991
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MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (12.16), in reply: I would like to thank members for their comments on this piece of legislation, particularly, as Mr Collaery has said, Mr Duby for a very erudite dissertation indeed. I would like to address a few of the remarks raised by members, Mr Speaker. I say at the outset that we must not lose sight of the purposes of this legislation. One of the purposes, as Mr Collaery pointed out, is to do away with or greatly discourage the existence of private clubs or pseudo clubs. Another very important purpose, of course, is to ease the burden on the ACT's existing legitimate clubs by moving them to a monthly tax regime instead of the very large lump sums they have had to face on an annual basis. Not surprisingly, these changes have been sought by the Licensed Clubs Association and will be welcomed by them, I believe.
I would also like to say that the actions that are being taken today still do favour the smaller clubs. There is no doubt about that. Mr Collaery read out a range of tax amounts for different clubs. I am not able to confirm those figures that he read out. I do not think it would be appropriate for the Assembly generally to discuss a particular business's tax liability, and I am not about to. But I would like to say that for one club, the Workers Club, which Mr Collaery mentioned, I do not believe that this new regime will make an appreciable difference to their tax liability. As I said, and I will repeat it, we have favoured the smaller clubs, and I think all members here would approve of that.
Members have also raised the issue of the tax rate on clubs, the maximum of 22.5 per cent in contrast to the casino tax at 20 per cent. Mr Speaker, I would like to say that the super tax arrangements for the casino mean that there will be an additional 10 per cent paid by way of tax in the calendar years 1992 and 1993, and a 7.5 per cent super tax in 1994 and 1995. So, for the casino the tax regime will be 30 per cent; 37.5 per cent up till about 1995; and if there are higher profits there is an additional 5 per cent tax that may be charged by way of super tax. So, I think the casino tax regime at up to 35 per cent is considerably higher than that for most of the clubs that are under debate today.
Mr Kaine raised the issue, and Mr Duby also raised the question, of the temporary increase in fees for those clubs whose annual fee is refunded and then recharged on a monthly basis. I would like to refer Mr Duby, first of all, to subclause 16(5) of the Bill, which locks in the reverting to 22.5 per cent from 1 July 1992. I think the cast-iron guarantee that Mr Duby was looking for is actually contained in the Bill.
Mr Duby: No, no; from the Labor Party.
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