Page 1055 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 17 March 2010
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today, incidentally, in the chamber. He is a very bitter minister. There is obviously something happening behind the scenes in the party room or upstairs on level 2 because he is very bitter. In fact, they are all bitter at the moment. They have all got very short fuses. They are all sending out cowardly barbs across the chamber and signals that they are very frustrated. They are signals of frustration with how they are travelling, they are signals of frustration with the lack of momentum the ACT government has at the moment and they are signals of frustration at the lack of ideas and vision this government has.
They are running on empty. They have no plans for the future. They have no vision and they will not even communicate with people that do. It is pretty disappointing. I commend Mr Smyth for raising this motion, for communicating with the industry and for doing what the minister is not doing—that is, looking at ways to make sure that the racing industry in Canberra is profitable and will continue to grow well into the future.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (5.53): As has been touched on today, the background to this motion is firmly based on how the racing industry is changing in Australia. The way Australians engage with the racing industry and, in particular, the way punters place bets, has changed markedly over the years. Put simply, the change is that now people will easily place bets online rather than at the race track or in TABs. I have circulated an amendment in my name and I will come back to it in a little while. Since this motion was first put on the notice paper some weeks ago there have been some discussions between my office, the minister’s office and Mr Smyth’s office. Hopefully, the amendment will prove to be a useful way forward. With regard to the broader debate, as my colleague Amanda Bresnan noted last year in the Assembly, the racing industry has gone through similar changes before. Ms Bresnan noted that in 1961:
… the racing industry was largely funded by spectator admission fees and fees paid by on-course bookmakers. Of course, bookmakers such as the starting price bookmakers, or SP bookmakers, operating mainly in hotels undermined this model. In order for the racing industry to survive, this was addressed by granting licenses to government-owned TABs to provide off-course retail wagering.
This gave punters a legal and convenient alternative to illegal off-course bookmakers in addition to providing an effective means of raising taxation for government. This arrangement ensured that the racing industry was paid for the use of its product through agreements between the TABs and the local racing authorities.
Ms Bresnan concluded her comments that day by saying:
Something similar is happening again. With the advent of the internet and telephone betting, off-course bookmakers or betting exchanges are now offering cheap and innovative betting products across Australia 24 hours a day.
In the context of today’s debate, this shift in the way bets are placed impacts on government decisions on what is the best model of funding for the industry. The model used previously in the ACT meant that the industry relied upon a dividend
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