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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 3620 ..

MR RUGENDYKE (continuing):

Concerns were raised about the impacts of incorporation, in particular about the possibility of stamp duty charges on assets. The ACT government has agreed to waive stamp duty in these instances, and I understand that the government is negotiating with other states to make similar steps for properties that are owned interstate. I would appreciate the Chief Minister updating the Assembly on these talks in his summary speech.

Overall, the concept of mandatory contributions is a good one. It is important that clubs be made accountable for fulfilling their social responsibility. It is important that they be accountable to the community.

MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition) (12:11): Many of the issues that I would have addressed have been adequately covered by my colleagues Mr Quinlan and Mr Berry. One aspect of the debate that I do not think has been acknowledged or where a document has not been appropriately or duly given by the government in relation to this debate is the extent to which the licensed clubs by their very existence make a major contribution to the community.

What we see in this debate is a determination to define community contribution in terms of the payments made by the licensed clubs to charities or for other defined community purposes. So what we have is a determination by the government to impose on the licensed clubs a fairly narrow definition of what is the community and what is a community purpose or what is a community benefit.

The very existence of a licensed club or a club in the ACT is an expression of community involvement, a concern for the community, a determination to embrace the community, a determination to support the community. Clubs are an emanation of a group of people, almost invariably a group of volunteers initially who want to create a club or an organisation for the purposes of providing a community service, providing community support or providing a range of services for members or for people who associate with, or are attracted to, a particular organisation because of what it offers or was formed for.

That is why clubs in the ACT are invariably based around sporting organisations, particular migrant or ethnic groups within the community, perhaps a union, perhaps a political party, perhaps even an organisation associated with a church. The biggest club in the ACT, the Canberra Southern Cross Club, was formed by the Knights of the Southern Cross for a community purpose, for the benefit of those members associated with it who are members of this community.

We have overlaying that a determination by this government to decide what is the more fitting or the more beneficial community purpose. We see in some of the amendments to be moved by Mr Moore a determination that a club formed for the purposes of a group that perhaps belong to a union or a political party is less worthy for community purposes than a club formed, for instance, by the Knights of the Southern Cross, the Tuggeranong Football Club or a club formed by some migrant or ethnic group, such as the Austro - Hungarian community of the ACT.

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