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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 3 Hansard (25 March) . . Page.. 813 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

shown less interest in looking at what the negative impacts might be or in managing or regulating the industry. Most members of this place know that there is concern in the community about this issue and that it is important that government takes a responsible approach.

The recommendations of this report, if implemented, will improve the monitoring and management of this activity as well as ensure that a greater proportion of revenue gained from gambling is directed towards supporting the social negatives, research and the broader community benefit. The committee has made recommendations which will ensure that there is proper data collection and research; that the cap should remain until there is a strong information base on which to inform decisions; that there should be public education and a mandatory code of practice; that poker machine licences be for five years only; and that re-allocation will be influenced by the previous performance of the operator. There are a number of responsible gaming practices recommended which would be included in the code of practice.

The committee also made a number of recommendations related to the structure and role of the gaming commission. The evidence given to the committee was overwhelmingly in support of the need for independence from government of the commission and for there to be a community reference group linked formally to the commission. It is also essential that the commission is adequately resourced to do its job properly.

This report was unanimously supported by members of the committee, and I hope that it will be taken very seriously by government. If the Government chooses to attempt to divert attention from the substance of this report by their usual political antics they will lose even more credibility on this issue. Obviously, without a government member on the committee, there cannot be a sudden outrageous dissenting report prepared. I do not believe that they could credibly even accuse Mr Wood of a conflict of interest as a Labor member because the recommendations of this report will certainly impact on clubs in a way that I do not think they will like.

In this inquiry the committee has taken a serious look at a significant social and economic activity in our community. We received many submissions from community and industry groups. All members of the committee took this inquiry very seriously. Recommendations are well supported by evidence, and the committee worked together in a genuine spirit of a desire to reach consensus on some very difficult questions.

Obviously, the question of whether increased access to poker machines should be supported, in particular at this stage, by allowing hotels and taverns to have them was the subject of much discussion within the committee. I do want to stress "at this stage" to hotels and taverns because obviously there will be, and has been already in Australia, attempts to allow poker machines into other venues. The hotels, of course, argue that they are disadvantaged in the market because clubs undercut the food and alcohol prices. This argument was also put in the United States by restaurants who argued equal disadvantage. The committee does have sympathy for the difficulties being experienced by some proprietors of hotels and taverns. It was also clear to the committee that we could not support more of the public policy on the run approach, often, unfortunately, a characteristic of this Government.

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