Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 2978 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

poker machines, quite rightly say that their performance in the community is better than the performance of others - say, the casino or the hotel industry - whether it is by way of benefiting their members or by way of special purpose community grants. I think that is fairly clearly so. They do operate in a sheltered environment created in recognition of the community contributions they make.

I suspect that this debate may never have occurred if at the same time as the Labor Party decided to set up a social club in the ACT the Liberals had set one up, the Greens had set one up and Michael Moore had enough people interested to form a club with him, the Michael Moore club. I suspect that we would not be in this particular predicament at this point and there would not be any of this phoney worrying about what clubs contribute to the community. After all, how would the Liberals like a piece of legislation in the ACT which required every business to tell the Assembly what contributions they made to the community? How would you like that? This is a business that provides a particular social outcome for its members by way of its profits. Other businesses provide profits to their owners.

Mr Speaker, I am speaking by leave and my understanding is that I have open-ended leave to speak.

MR SPEAKER: No.

MR BERRY: I do. I sought leave to speak and I was granted leave. Mr Speaker, I just want to know what the position is.

MR SPEAKER: You have the normal speaking time.

MR BERRY: That was not the condition of leave. I sought leave to speak in - - -

Mr Moore: If you think it was something different, seek leave to speak now.

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, is Mr Moore running the show or are you, sir?

MR SPEAKER: Order! The time allowed for the person introducing the legislation is 20 minutes. Everybody else has 15 minutes.

MR BERRY: That is right, Mr Speaker. Mrs Carnell closed the debate. I sought leave to speak.

MR SPEAKER: That is right. For the in-principle stage of a Bill it is still 15 minutes.

MR BERRY: Thank you, Mr Speaker. This is a phoney Bill, born out of poisonous circumstances and intended to injure the club movement and satisfy the political aspirations of some in this place. It will not be supported. It is unfair in its application to the licensed clubs. It enforces an unfair bureaucracy on the licensed clubs and the licensed hotel industry, which should in all respects be the same. Some of my amendments deal with that issue. I expect that there will be some resistance to the full application of this legislation to the hotel industry, but there should not be.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .