Page 6217 - Week 19 - Tuesday, 17 December 1991
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There is nothing inconsistent, as Mr Kaine suggested, about Dr Kinloch's position on the casino. I think his views have been well known to all of us all through, and you have all known that the Rally has remained consistently concerned about this decision being made with regard to all proper criteria. We insisted on that in the Alliance Government. We were opposed to it at section 19 and it was not resolved during the time we were in government.
The Chief Minister has moved it off section 19 and that settled a major concern of the Rally. Apart from those planning issues, which are part of the legal questions in that policy of ours, and those matters I raised which the Chief Minister may be able to respond to, there are the social and economic issues that remain and that we will agree to disagree on, I imagine.
MR DUBY (4.28): Mr Deputy Speaker, the issue of the casino has been around in the ACT community for many years. Some speakers have already traversed the history of the issue, going back to the days of former Federal Minister Punch and earlier. I have been involved with the issue of the casino only since becoming a member of this Assembly. I think it is worth recapping what the members of this Assembly have done about a casino since the matter was first raised.
I was fortunate to be on the only committee of inquiry that this Assembly established regarding the establishment of a casino in the Territory. That was a very comprehensive inquiry into all matters relating to the establishment of a casino. I am trying to remember; yes, Dr Kinloch was on that committee.
Mr Jensen: I was on the committee.
MR DUBY: Mr Jensen, I beg your pardon. Mr Jensen was on that committee. That is right; Dr Kinloch almost excluded himself from being on that committee for various reasons. Mr Wood was there. The committee was chaired by Mr Humphries, and Mr Jensen, Mr Stevenson and I were the other members. We examined all of the issues and had many public hearings into all the ramifications of the establishment of a casino in the Territory.
We examined the operations of casinos in other parts of the country and at the end of the day we were able to report that in our view the establishment of a casino in the Territory would have great economic benefit to the ACT community generally and, at that time, in 1989, to the construction industry in particular. It would also have implications in terms of long-term employment in the Territory, and that has been borne out, I think, by studies that have occurred in relation to other casinos throughout Australia.
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