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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 2981 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

(c) to an organisation declared by the Minister by notice in the Gazette to be an organisation for the purposes of this section, being an organisation that has as its principal purpose the benefit of the community or a section of the community.

Where is the right of appeal in the legislation, Mr Moore, if the Minister refuses to declare an organisation? There is none there. I think even you would have to agree with that, notwithstanding your fixed view on the legislation. What I have set out to do here is to make sure that community organisations that seek to be part of this distribution of funding can be released from the control of the Minister. The amendments that I have proposed quite plainly make it possible for the club to decide to whom it should donate.

Mrs Carnell: Including its members? Make a quid and just distribute it to your members?

MR BERRY: No. Mrs Carnell, you should read your own legislation before you come into this place.

Mrs Carnell: I have read your amendments.

MR BERRY: Read your own legislation before you come into this place. Have a look at the interpretation clause, clause 4. Just turn it over and have a look at what "contribution" is defined as. "Contribution" means any money, benefit, valuable, consideration or security. That would apply in respect of a club's members. Mrs Carnell seems to think club members are not members of the community and they are to be excised from this whole arrangement. How can you sit over there with a straight face and say that a club raising funds to provide facilities for its members - tens of thousands of them - is not performing a function for the community of those members?

The approach that I have taken here is to ensure that this unfettered power by the Minister is taken away. I get the feeling that there will be an attempt by Mr Moore to retain it in the legislation; but it seems to me that, if you hand over to the Minister the power to decide who can be the subject of these donations, then you are giving away far too much authority, taking authority away from the community. These amendments are worthwhile amendments which would provide a positive for what is a tawdry piece of legislation designed to create difficulty for the club industry.

MR MOORE (7.43): I find it most interesting that I was booted out of this place for accusing the Labor Party of having a conflict of interest, and for not withdrawing the accusation. Of course, it was the not withdrawing that was the critical factor. The irony is not to be missed after listening to the speeches that Mr Berry has made on this issue. Those speeches, of course, were peppered with things that were not quite accurate.

I will use an example from Mr Berry's speech to illustrate my point. He suggested that if a Michael Moore club had been formed the vote would go a different way. No, it would not, Mr Berry. I would not vote differently. I would not vote at all. I would stand aside from the vote. If there were a Michael Moore club, a club that I was involved in or a club that was making a major contribution to my election campaign,

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