Page 2110 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 21 June 2005
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really need to be concerned that we are not in fact exacerbating the incidence of problem gambling.
Life will get a bit tougher, but it will only change a little bit from what existed for so many years before this very rapid escalation in the technology. In relation to smoking, well, I do not think there is any person in this place now who really would attempt to sustain an argument against the banning of smoking in enclosed spaces. That is the reason why we have not imposed additional taxation—at this stage it is still the minimum in Australia—to allow some breathing space, and excuse the pun, for clubs and allow them to digest the changes that will occur after the imposition of a smoking ban. I would be fairly certain that it is likely that the gross poker machine take will decrease permanently by some margin with the full smoking ban. Smokers who cannot give up, but do not like to go and sit out on the half veranda or whatever is going to be built, will go home earlier so they can have a fag, or they will walk outside and then think, “Why don’t I go home?” I think that will create a permanent change, but I do not know that it is necessarily a bad thing. It is adopting a standard that the community now accepts, and nobody argues with it.
So there will be some changes, but I think at the end of the day we will have smoking banned inside like every other state, every other jurisdiction in Australia. We will have the lowest taxation regime and we will have still a monopoly accruing to clubs. So I do not necessarily think they are in a bad position. If anybody had been at their annual meeting in Penrith last November they would have heard the representative of the New South Wales club industry telling our ACT industry just how well they have got it by comparison. I thank members for their support.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Detail stage
Clauses 1 to 3, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
Remainder of bill, by leave, taken as a whole.
MR QUINLAN (Molonglo—Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Business, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Sport and Recreation, and Minister for Racing and Gaming) (4.37): I seek leave to move the amendments circulated in my name together.
Leave granted.
MR QUINLAN: I move amendments Nos 1 and 2 circulated in my name together [see schedule 1 at page 2120]. The explanation has been distributed with these amendments. I do not think they would qualify as controversial.
Amendments agreed to.
Remainder of bill, as a whole, as amended, agreed to.
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