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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2514 ..

Mr Stanhope: Have you sacked any disabled workers today?

Mr Berry: Have you sacked any disabled workers today?

MR SPEAKER: Just a moment. A perfectly reasonable question has been asked. The Chief Minister stands up to answer it and is then prevented from doing so by a barrage of questions. What do you people imagine she has to hide in answering the question that you have to try to silence her like some football crowd?

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I am very happy to answer the question. As Mr Moore and other members would know, we have significantly increased the money spent on people with disabilities. Mr Stanhope should have known that as well. We have also significantly increased money for people with mental health problems and significantly increased the benefits for ageing people in our community.

But, even with those increases in funding, we agree that there is unmet need in the community, and that is the reason we have on the notice paper a Bill with regard to gaming machine revenue and clubs. We on this side of the house believe very strongly that because clubs have a monopoly on poker machines and they are making a large amount of money out of them a percentage of that money - a very small percentage, 3 per cent of the net gaming machine revenue, to start with - should go to exactly those organisations that Mr Bill Wood is talking about. Three per cent of net gaming machine revenue is not a lot. Net gaming machine revenue is gaming machine revenue after costs, wages and taxes are all taken out. But I understand that Mr Wood does not support that legislation.

MR WOOD: I ask a supplementary question. I have in earlier days acknowledged the extra funding to disability services, as I acknowledged last year the extra funding to mental health services. I appreciate the acknowledgment by the Chief Minister that there is an unmet need. I ask the further question: Does she recognise how large that unmet need is, and does she still fail to acknowledge the work that clubs do - in fact, I think she has been involved recently - in helping to meet that unmet need?

MS CARNELL: The Government fully appreciates the work that some clubs do to meet community need. The whole reason clubs exist in this city is to benefit the community. They are not-for-profit organisations. They have a monopoly on poker machines. According to them - and I agree with them - they are there to benefit the community. That is the reason they have poker machines and a monopoly. We absolutely agree with that, and we think that some clubs do the right thing. But, as we found out when we asked the clubs to report totally at the end of last year, not all clubs do.

Yes, there will always be need in any community. The fact is that the need is significantly lower now than it was when we came to government. The reason for that is that more people are in jobs. The one thing that does create more social equity in any community is people having jobs. We have significantly more people in jobs and significantly fewer people collecting social security benefits. Therefore, the situation has improved, but it would improve even more if those opposite would support our

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