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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 2 Hansard (20 May) . . Page.. 426 ..

Ms Tucker: I will, when I wind up the debate.

MS CARNELL: Fine. The bottom line here, Mr Speaker, is that we have opposed retrospective legislation in this place where people's livelihoods would be affected. The only time that we accepted retrospective legislation was when nobody would be hurt, where no money would change hands, or where there were no serious impacts. That is a fair statement of our approach. But, Mr Speaker, that will not be the case this time if we go down this path.

Again I come back to the issues. The Government has no problems with an inquiry into the social and economic impact of gambling in the ACT. We are two weeks away from having done one. We have no problems with a cap on the number of poker machines in the ACT, but let us make sure that the cap is right. Let us make sure that it is set in some scientific and consultative fashion.

Mr Speaker, let us, once and for all, get rid of some of the myths surrounding poker machines and gambling in the ACT. Under Labor the ACT Government's receipts from taxing poker machines, as a percentage of total revenue, more than doubled. I need to say that again, Mr Speaker. Under Labor the ACT Government's receipts from taxing poker machines, as a percentage of total revenue, more than doubled. That is right; it more than doubled. In fact, between 1990-91 and 1994-95, gaming machine taxes, as a percentage of total Territory revenue, increased from just 2.1 per cent to 5 per cent. And guess what, Mr Speaker. Under this Government, the percentage has declined slightly, from 5.56 per cent in 1995-96 to 5.25 per cent this financial year. Mr Speaker, I am happy to table these figures.

I am sure that Ms Tucker, and maybe even Labor, might be a little bit interested to know that this Government is not making a killing out of poker machines. I remember a press release from Mr Berry last November. (Extension of time granted) In that press release late last year Mr Berry said this:

It is obvious that the Liberals are motivated purely by the budget dollar. An increase in poker machines would see an increase in government revenue. The ACT does not need to become another government fixated with the gaming dollar.

Mr Berry, because he was part of that Government, doubled the amount of poker machine revenue as a percentage of gross dollars. I will table that. Mr Speaker, the hypocrisy here is mind-blowing.

Let me put another nail in the coffin of Ms Tucker's argument that this Government is overreliant on gambling revenue and that the situation in the ACT is getting worse by the minute. The 1998 Commonwealth Grants Commission - this is not old data, Mr Speaker - found that the ACT collected almost $18m below standardised levels from gambling revenue. That was actually $17.9m less in revenue than the ACT would be expected to raise if it were to apply the Australian average revenue raising effort to our own revenue base. For every year bar one since self-government we have been assessed as making a below standard effort compared to other jurisdictions. Do you know what,

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