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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (9 May) . . Page.. 1282 ..

MR SPEAKER: Do you have a supplementary question, Mr Wood?

MR WOOD: Yes, Mr Speaker. How, minister? I have heard what you said before. I would like you to tell us how you are going to do that.

MR SMYTH: Mr Speaker, it is quite clear that we will do it by way of the maintenance budget we have, which continues to grow. We will do it by getting rid of stock that is too old, unnecessary or inadequate for our needs and the needs of our tenants and making sure that we have appropriate stock of appropriate age in appropriate locations to meet the needs of our tenants, because we care for our tenants. We want to continue to build up public housing in the city so that it meets the needs of the tenants where they are.

MS TUCKER: My question is to Mr Humphries. Given that the functions of the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission include reviewing legislation and policies related to gaming and racing and making recommendations to the minister on those matters and that section 7 of the relevant act states that the commission must perform its functions in the way that best promotes the public interest and in particular, as far as practicable, promotes consumer protection and so on, did you seek advice from the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission to inform your position on the Commonwealth's call for a moratorium on Internet gambling licences?

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, Mr Speaker, I have had a number of discussions with the chairman and the chief executive of the Gambling and Racing Commission about the proposals from the Commonwealth to ban Internet gambling. In fact, Mr Broome and Mr Curtis attended the inaugural meeting of the Ministerial Council on Gambling with me last month to assess the Commonwealth's position and help me provide a response to that. I have to say that the advice I have received from the chairman and the chief executive very much reflects the concern about the impracticality of Australian governments limiting access to a medium which is now all pervasive and extremely accessible to Australians; indeed, people all round the world.

Members may recall seeing Mr Broome on television only in the last 24 hours talking in his role as former chair of the National Crime Authority about problems with Australia's regulation generally of Internet business and the pitfalls we face in trying to regulate that emerging sector of the economy. The advice to me has been quite consistent. We have all seen the analogies about nailing jelly to a wall and things like that. That is what we are talking about when we consider the question of regulating the Internet and the concerns that have been expressed to me are very much ones about the practical difficulties of doing what the Commonwealth is attempting to do.

Mr Speaker, the position of the commission is one of giving the government advice on such matters. I will accept that advice. I think that the advice, particularly from our chairman, is extremely competent. He has a great deal of experience in that area and I think that it is important for us to continue to be part of a very important emerging debate. I understand that there is still a view by the Commonwealth that it should move down this path. It may be that they will, in fact, move to legislate in the federal parliament to achieve this goal. I am not sure what the Australian Democrats would do

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