Page 4502 - Week 14 - Thursday, 1 December 1994
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Mr Lamont: No; it is the relevance to the amendments before us.
MR DE DOMENICO: The relevance to my amendments - - -
Mr Lamont: It is a stunt.
MR DE DOMENICO: I heard Mr Berry, in this place earlier this year, when we talked about the VITAB deal, say that that was a stunt as well. Is it any wonder that every time legislation comes before this house, which has anything to do with betting and the TAB, we examine it with a fine-tooth comb? The Auditor-General's report came out after this legislation was brought into the Assembly. The Opposition was not aware of what the Auditor-General was going to say. Perhaps the Government was; I do not know. The Auditor-General said quite clearly:
Based on current rates of interest the annual payments related to the VITAB loan will be approximately $600,000 per year. If profits remain at their current level it is unlikely that cash generated from operations will be sufficient to meet repayments of the loan and other financing arrangements may need to be made.
Ms Szuty: Did he take into account no Northern Territory money?
MR DE DOMENICO: That is the other point. That is a scathing attack on the finances of VITAB and ACTTAB. For the Minister to say that that is not relevant is a nonsense.
The Opposition's amendments say quite clearly: Notwithstanding the turnover which ACTTAB generates, the current return to the three bodies - the greyhounds, the trots and the racing club - and the RDF must remain enshrined in legislation. If the Minister wants to change the returns, he has to come into this house and move amendments to legislation - not by way of a Clayton's disallowance. If the Minister does not want to do that, he can make the adjustments from whatever the Government's take is. It is no fault of the racing bodies that we are in this financial situation because of the VITAB deal.
Mr Lamont: It has absolutely no relevance to this Bill; none at all.
MR DE DOMENICO: That is a nonsense, and you know it. You may wish that it did not, Mr Lamont.
Mr Lamont: At least Mrs Carnell knows that.
MR DE DOMENICO: No; she does not, Mr Lamont, I can assure you. Mrs Carnell, you will find, is in agreement, Mr Lamont, because your Government has put - - -
Mr Lamont: It is your party's stunt.
MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Lamont, if you really wanted to give the TAB the flexibility that it requires, you would privatise it. If you did not want to privatise it, you would corporatise it.
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