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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 3 Hansard (24 March) . . Page.. 723 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

proponents of a club in the casino have had to jump over so many hurdles already, and rightly so. They have had to show themselves to be a club under the Act. All sorts of things have had to be achieved and all sorts of legislation has had to be complied with.

The problem, as I see it, of allowing this sort of decision to be determined by the Assembly is that it just puts off a decision even further. As we know, the Assembly has 15 sitting days in which to consider a disallowable instrument. Fifteen sitting days in this place is six months. Is that fair after a particular entity has complied with all other legislation? I suppose that is a matter for the Assembly to determine.

While the Government has no objection to the Bill, I would like to draw the attention of the Assembly to the concerns expressed by Casino Canberra in a letter to Mr Kaine dated 12 March, a copy of which was sent to me by the casino. It states:

Your -

that is, Mr Kaine's -

proposal does not as suggested remove an anomaly, but it has substantial adverse consequences not only on the Casino but on other third parties, by creating lengthy delays of five or six months (due to disallowance provisions relating to the regulation making process) and by removing commercial certainty as a result of such unnecessary delays.

Mr Speaker, the Government believes that there is no anomaly in current legislation and that this Bill will not change the administrative processes undertaken by the Minister. We understand that in the interests of accountability and transparency in government decisions there are times when it is appropriate for decisions taken by a Minister to be disallowable, but these are rarely in areas where there are commercial concerns or where there needs to be, as the casino rightly says, a level of commercial certainty. If we take the view right across the board that the decisions of a Minister that have commercial impact can be put off by this Assembly for five to six months, it will have significant implications down the track.

I was also interested in another letter from the casino to Mr Kaine. I suppose it says a lot about the way Mr Kaine operates in this place. This letter says:

Paul Whalan met with you -

meaning Mr Kaine -

today in relation to your proposed amendment to the Casino Control Act.

You advised Mr Whalan that you had rushed the presentation of your Bill -

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