Page 3739 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 26 August 2009
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(2) calls on the Chief Minister to fully detail his participation in the proposed sale of the Canberra Labor Club Group.
The sale of the Labor Club Group is an issue of considerable concern to the community. There is so much concern that the president of the Labor club has raised his concerns that the proposed transaction could have involved improper influence or unlawful acts. The ACT Treasurer, having been written to about these concerns, referred the matter to the Gambling and Racing Commission.
At this point we do not know the extent or timing of that inquiry, what can or will be investigated or what the inquiry process will be. I emphasise that we support most strongly the Gaming and Racing Commission. The integrity of this commission is unquestioned. What we are doing, however, is questioning whether the commission is the best agency to conduct this inquiry, given the limits that apply to the commission. The commission can only investigate the gaming issues. The commission cannot examine the application of corporations law or any possible tax implication. Indeed, the commission cannot determine policies relating to gaming; that is a role for the Assembly alone. I emphasise that there are important issues of public policy that must be considered relating to the sale of poker machines. It is essential that the proposed transaction involving the Labor Club Group is not rushed through.
I need to comment briefly on the basis on which poker machines were introduced into the ACT. It was not intended that they create private gambling empires. Indeed, as the former Treasurer said in his presentation speech in May 2004 when introducing the current act, eligibility for gaming machine licences remains with those venues that are genuinely not for profit; community contributions are an integral requirement of the way in which poker machine revenues are to be used. The current Chief Minister has repeatedly reinforced this community bias. In November 2007, he said in the Assembly that those amongst our community who make the decisions to run the clubs do it because of their commitment to the community.
That is all useful background. It leads directly to the role of the Chief Minister in the process that the ACT Labor Party has put in train to sell the Labor Club Group. We are well aware that the Chief Minister has refused to answer questions about his involvement in this process. The other four ministers in the ACT government, who are to be congratulated, have each said that they have not been involved in the sale process, that none of their staff have been involved in the sale process and that none of their representatives have been involved in the sale process. The Chief Minister, on a number of occasions now, has ducked this question, even though the Chief Minister is a member of the ACT Labor administrative committee.
There remain many questions to be answered in relation to this matter and there are serious questions relating to the activities of people who have been alleged to have influenced the sale or the halting of the sale of the Canberra Labor Club Group. In the context of our debate today, the real question is: what role did the Chief Minister, as a member of the Labor Party administrative committee, have in this matter?
A critical issue in the entire matter is the conflicts of interest that are either evident or appear to exist in relation to this transaction. This is especially pertinent in the context
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