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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Thursday, 26 August 2004) . . Page.. 4296 ..

has been undertaking a project on behalf of the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission concerning a number of these issues including, as I said, the matter of note acceptors.

The clubs also have to contend with the smoking legislation passed by this Assembly. If one message comes out strong and clear in terms of what ideally the clubs would like to see happen it is that they need certainty. They are in a difficult industry. A number of clubs have fallen over. Clubs provide about $15 million worth of community contributions, which is over and above what the statutory requirement of 7 per cent asks them to do. As I indicated, they employ thousands of Canberrans and provide entertainment for many more.

There are 400,000 members of Canberra’s licensed clubs. A number of people—I must say that I am one of them—belong to a number of licensed clubs, hence that figure. It is important to ensure that the balanced approach that has been taken by this Assembly is given a chance to work, that the industry and everyone involved in this area is allowed to proceed with certainty and that the work being done by Professor McMillen’s group is also allowed to proceed with certainty.

Mr Shonk of the Licensed Clubs Association wrote to me and my colleague Mr Smyth—I imagine that a similar letter was sent to a number of other members—as a matter of urgency concerning Ms Tucker’s proposal. He stated that restricting note acceptors to one $20 note at a time would be disastrous for the club industry in the ACT. Ms Tucker and Ms Dundas talked about the situation in Queensland. Mr Shonk went on to say that it was tried in Queensland a couple of years ago and the government moved within three to four days to redress the situation because of the substantial and immediate impact it had on industry revenue.

Recently, the New South Wales government’s Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, after a major and comprehensive review of a range of harm minimisation measures, noted that banning note acceptors could have very significant effects on the economics of the gaming industry, of which clubs are a part, but there was very little evidence regarding the effectiveness of the measure. In this context, the tribunal considered that research into limiting note acceptors to low denominations should be given greater priority than any research into banning note acceptors.

As a result of legislation passed by the Assembly, the acceptance of notes of a high denomination has been banned in the ACT. Significantly, the New South Wales body said that further research should be conducted to clarify the benefits to gamblers and the economic impacts on venues of modified note acceptors. Our decision has been to ban $100 and $50 notes. New South Wales, incidentally, has no restrictions at all and it does not appear that it will have any for the foreseeable future.

The clubs have indicated that they are very concerned about the issues raised by Ms Tucker and are worried about there being a significant and substantial reduction in their revenue coming about very soon after the imposition of a complete ban on smoking and are worried about the viability of many clubs in the industry being at severe risk for no really discernible benefit elsewhere. They have also pointed out that Professor Jan McMillen’s group is looking at this issue and a number of other issues. I think that it should be given a chance to do so. I think that the legislation, which laboriously went

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