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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (9 April) . . Page.. 820 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Mr Speaker, I am very happy to table that document if anybody is interested. That sums it up. It makes it clear that the Labor Club itself is saying it can continue this level of support only if poker machines are retained exclusively by clubs. That level of support, as we know, is some $300,000 a year to the Labor Party.

Mr Berry: You are asking us to abandon all the other clubs.

MRS CARNELL: That is from two clubs; I accept that. There could be others.

Mr Berry: We are not going to abandon the clubs.

MR SPEAKER: Order! You have already spoken, Mr Berry. It is Mrs Carnell's turn now.

MRS CARNELL: I think it is very important, then, to look at what conflict of interest actually is.

Mr Berry: You would not know.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Berry said I would not know. I will quote him because, obviously, Mr Berry thinks he would know. On 19 November 1996, he said:

Conflict of interest can be perceived or actual, and good governance is served when both are avoided, irrespective of any tailor-made rule which may allow one or the other to occur.

On 26 September 1996, Mr Berry said:

The next issue I would like to mention is Mr Humphries's deliberate ignorance of the issue I raised with him in relation to what is the rule of law on conflict of interest. That maxim is determined by what is thought to be the view of the world of the ordinary person in the street. If an ordinary person in the street believes that there is a conflict of interest, then it is fair to assume that there probably is one, according to law. That is the issue I raise.

They are Mr Berry's own comments. Mr Berry said that I did not understand conflict of interest; so it was very important for me to raise what he actually said in this place about conflict of interest on two separate occasions.

We know from public records that there is a direct benefit to the Labor Party from the Labor Club, the Tradies Club and, potentially, other clubs as well. As Mr Moore said, we know that significant donations to political parties benefit the members of those political parties inasmuch as they can run more expensive campaigns and all the rest of it and potentially get more people elected. Mr Humphries made the point that political parties would not spend the sort of money they spend on election campaigns if they did not believe it produced more people being elected. You would spend nothing if money spent on campaigns did not produce results.

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