Page 5985 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 8 December 2010

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video

As I said before, Mr Barr’s brave call that he will no longer be issuing poker machine licences does not take a single licence out of play. But what it does is protect the Labor club. You will need to go back before the 2007 federal election when Kevin Rudd, who is no longer Prime Minister, also said that it was time for action on gaming machines. But, of course, that action did not occur and it will now never occur under that Prime Minister.

But the problem here is that it is simply protectionism. This is the Labor Party still looking after the Labor Club Group who fund their campaigns. If there is a conflict of interest in this place, if there is protectionism going on, it is because of the Labor Party’s interests, their conflicts of interest, and we all should be aware of that.

What we need is genuine reform. What we need is an across-the-board approach to problem gaming and problem gambling. But we will not get that under this government. We will not get that under this minister and we will certainly not get it as a consequence of Ms Hunter’s bill.

Question put:

That Mr Smyth’s amendments be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Ayes 5		Noes 11
Mr Coe	Mr Seselja	Mr Barr	Ms Hunter
Mr Doszpot	Mr Smyth	Ms Bresnan	Ms Le Couteur
Mrs Dunne		Ms Burch	Ms Porter
		Mr Corbell	Mr Rattenbury
		Ms Gallagher	Mr Stanhope
		Mr Hargreaves

Question so resolved in the negative.

Amendments negatived.

Remainder of bill as a whole, as amended, agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

Bimberi Youth Justice Centre—proposed inquiry

Debate resumed.

MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (4.46): The ACT Greens have as one of their key justice principles that the safety, health and rehabilitation of victims and offenders and the reduction of recidivism and trauma should be given high priority in the justice system and that children and young people require protection in all areas of the justice system. Research on much of Australia’s

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video