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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 3703 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

This is the important amendment. It says that we recognise the special privilege poker machines give, and therefore there should be a proper effort to ensure that contributions made during the financial year to registered parties do not disadvantage people in the community - sporting groups, community groups and so on. There will a dollar - for - dollar contribution.

There has been quite a deal of acrimonious debate here this evening, but it is clear to me that this provision would apply equally to any party a licensed club wished to donate money to. Since I have been in this Assembly, millions of dollars has been donated to the Labor Party, and there been nowhere near that level of donation to any other party. The parties here, in my opinion, effectively moved money away that could have been going to charities.

We have seen in this chamber over that period the significant influence of clubs over the Labor Party. If you had any doubt about that at all, you only had to listen to Mr Berry's argument about the impact that he believes a $15,000 donation had on the Liberal Party.

Mr Berry: I know the impact. You can see it for yourself.

MR MOORE: He adds, "I know the influence of $15,000. I know the impact $15,000 had. You can see it for yourself." If that is the case, what is to make the rest of us standing on the outside looking at the parties think that millions and millions of dollars has had no influence on the Labor Party?

Mr Berry: I am a great supporter of the licensed clubs and always have been. You can see that for yourself.

MR MOORE: Indeed, Mr Berry, you are.

MR QUINLAN (9.12): What we are about to do in this place, by majority, is set a standard. Mr Moore made some play about money going to political contributions when it could have gone to the community. But the rest of this legislation sets the required standard. This provision sets a different standard for one organisation. The provisions of this legislation require clubs to make a 5 per cent contribution from net gaming machine revenue to the community. That includes all clubs.

However, if you make a political donation, you have to pay more to charity as well. That is effectively a penalty applied to political donations. It can go under no other banner, no matter how many weasel words are attached to it. It is not a penalty applied to political donations of all kinds. It is a penalty applied to political donations made by clubs, whether they be Labor clubs or not. It just so happens that the practical effect only falls in any magnitude at all on the Canberra Labor Club.

Much has been said about the Canberra Labor Club having a monopoly. Most people in this place know that I spent some of my time working on the board of the Canberra Labor Club - for several years working very hard, because it was not travelling so well. A lot of other people have spent a lot of their free time working for the survival of that outlet. We have since made a success of it. I can understand a certain degree of envy flowing from the Liberal Party about our making a success of a business enterprise. It is a phenomenon with which they are not very familiar.

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