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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 3611 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

that agenda because it is reliant on revenue from gambling for its funding. That is not a good situation, and I would not imagine that people here would think it was.

I was interested to see in the commission's report tabled last week that over 30 primary schools were receiving some kind of donation from clubs. That might be fine. We do not know what the donations were. We do not know whether a dinner was donated for a raffle or whether significant funds were donated.

It would be useful if the information the clubs give the commission regarding exactly how much they give to whom was publicly available. It may well be publicly available - I do not know. We rang the commission and asked whether it was publicly available and they did not know. Maybe they have found out since. I have not heard back. I am concerned that they did not know, and I intend to pursue this.

I mentioned to Gary Humphries this morning that we need to talk with the industry, and I want to talk with government, about whether there are any good arguments for not making this information publicly available. I cannot imagine what those arguments would be. It would be a way of us being able to keep track on how much our public institutions are becoming reliant on gambling through contributions from clubs. Environment ACT was mentioned too. I think we need to keep a watchful eye on that. I will be pursuing in more detail the issue of public disclosure of contributions that clubs make.

I will be supporting one of the three parts of the bill. I will speak to the amendments as they come up in debate.

MR MOORE (Minister for Health, Housing and Community Care) (11.35): I support this important legislation that helps ensure that profits from the gambling industry are distributed as equitably as possible to people within the community. I think there is some validity to Ms Tucker's concern that when you tie people to the gambling industry it becomes self - sustaining and therefore difficult to turn around.

My view is that gambling will always be with us and that it is important therefore to regulate it. As the industry has such a significant impact on the community in a wide range of ways Ms Tucker has investigated at length, we must make sure that the industry assists building a healthier society. That means supporting not only community organisations but also sporting organisations - and not just the peak sporting organisations, which quite a number of clubs already do - to help ordinary people to improve fitness and participate in the community in a wide range of ways.

There is something very special about revenue from poker machines. The government will be protected in a range of ways by allowing a small number of clubs the full benefit of poker machines. There are measure in place to ensure that others who would like to install poker machines - namely, the hotels and the casino, which are quite keen to have poker machines - are prevented from doing so. The clubs have a special privilege. It is basically a ticket to print money. There is no doubt about that. We give a significant privilege to a small group of people.

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