Page 3878 - Week 10 - Thursday, 27 August 2009
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367 machines in the electorate of Ginninderra out of a total of 1,178. That is the suburbs of Belconnen, Nicholls and Hall. At the time of the election, there were 68,358 adults in Ginninderra and there were 367 machines. In Ginninderra alone, the Australian Labor Party had 5.35 machines per 1,000 adults. That is an incredible figure. That is comparable to all the poker machine operators in Tasmania combined. In Tasmania the figure is about 5.8 or 5.9 poker machines per 1,000 adults. Here you have one operator alone with 5.35 machines per 1,000 people.
This is a ratio in a fairly dense population, unlike Tasmania where you have a population dispersed over a reasonable geography. Here in the ACT, everyone in Canberra is within a very short drive, if not a walk, from poker machines. So if you live in Belconnen, you have got 68,358 adults within a five or 10-minute drive of 367 Labor club poker machines. If you have that sort of exposure in an industry, surely the onus is on that provider to be putting that money back into that community. It is a very defined community. The district of Belconnen is pretty well defined. It would be quite easy to actually put the money collected from poker machines back into that community in a similar way that the other clubs do. It would be extremely disappointing if we saw the Labor Party profiteer on the back of such gambling, perhaps to the tune of $50 million.
In conclusion, Mr Smyth’s motion is very worthy of this Assembly’s support. It is disappointing that, at this stage, it seems the Labor Party will not be supporting this motion. I commend Mr Smyth for moving this motion, and I commend it to the chamber.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (5.12), in reply: In closing, much has been said today and some concern was raised about the angst in the clubs community about my actions. Well, I can tell you there is a lot of angst in the community about the Labor Club Group’s actions and the Labor Party’s actions. I know that the community is greatly concerned about what is happening here, the lack of transparency and the clear lack of openness in what is going on. People are worried about the implications, and this chamber should be worried about the implications. The implications for gaming in the future lead me to say that we should be sending this off to the public accounts committee for inquiry. This is a very important issue in regards to the future of community-based gaming in the ACT.
I was at a meeting last night where a member of the Labor Party said, “Just keep going. You tell them that we didn’t set the club up for the politicians to sell for their benefit. Don’t you stop.” He said that when he and his mates set it up, there were a couple of people that took the loans out over their houses to get it going. He told me some of the history and some of the stories, and he said, “We didn’t set it up to sell it. You find out. You need to get to the bottom of this and find out why they’re doing this.” And that is what we need to do.
I am disturbed by some of the comments from the minister, who said she has done her bit. She sent it to the Gambling and Racing Commission; that is her bit; that is all she has to do. The minister needs to read the ministerial code of conduct. Section 2 refers to respect for the law and the system of government and says that ministers will uphold the laws of the Australian Capital Territory and Australia and will not be party to their breach, evasion or subversion.
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