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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 3687 ..

MR QUINLAN: In that case, Mr Speaker, I will happily resume my seat and allow the Chief Minister to speak. I do not really want to waste the Assembly's time debating something that is not a fact. So I will actually leave it to the Chief Minister to reassure us that middle - level sport and grade sport in the ACT are part of our community.

MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Quinlan.

MR HUMPHRIES (Chief Minister, Minister for Community Affairs, Attorney - General and Treasurer) (8.06): I thank Mr Quinlan for that invitation. Mr Speaker, I am sorry that it was not possible for us to organise a meeting in the break with the adviser, the official from the Gambling and Racing Commission, but I am advised that he will be back here shortly and perhaps the matter can be taken up then.

I have, however, had my officer contact him and speak to him by telephone about the nature of paragraph (f), which is what we are still debating, 60A(f). The paragraph does not refer to sports at all. It refers to contributions by one club to another. In effect it means from one licensed club to another licensed club, Mr Speaker.

So the sorts of arrangements that Mr Quinlan is talking about where, say, a club like the Ainslie Football Club supports or contributes to organisations under its umbrella, which are themselves not licensed clubs, but subclubs, if you like, of the Ainslie Football Club, providing those contributions fall within the guidelines a draft of which has been circulated, can be considered to be community contributions.

Contributions made to another licensed club, however, under a reciprocal arrangement or agreement, that is, where the Ainslie Football Club supports the Gungahlin Lakes Football Club, the Easts Club, or some other licensed club which is itself the recipient of revenue from gaming machines, those contributions are not covered under these arrangements. They are not to be counted as community contributions. That is the advice I have received, Mr Speaker.

Mr Quinlan: Who is deciding this?

MR HUMPHRIES: Well, Mr Speaker, Mr Quinlan asked, "Who is deciding it?" We are talking about the effect of paragraph (f) in clause 60A, and what is excluded from counting as a community contribution under paragraph (f). I am making it clear to the Assembly that nothing in paragraph (f) excludes, in itself, contributions by a licensed club to another non - licensed club, or indeed to anybody else.

We are talking about the effect of paragraph (f). What does it prevent being counted as a community contribution? The answer is that it prevents a payment made from one licensed club to another counting as a community contribution, and so it should.

I have indicated that, if there is any doubt in this particular issue, the government will address it. I have already spoken to some representatives of Clubs ACT this afternoon about that matter. They expressed concern about it. I have undertaken to clear that up in the drafting of the guidelines; and if there is some problem that cannot be fixed with the drafting of the guidelines, it can be fixed at a later stage with a redrafting of paragraph (f). At this stage I am advised that, as drafted by parliamentary counsel, paragraph (f) achieves the desired goal and should not be amended.

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