Page 2616 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 June 2011
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in supporting them in the form that was then proposed. However, going forward, I hope that the Assembly can develop a bill that will address the fundamental basis of requiring pre-DA consultation in certain circumstances, without impinging on the integrity of the current development assessment process, which is of course modelled on the Development Assessment Forum’s best practice model.
In summary, I believe the passage of these planning and building legislation omnibus bills is a positive development which will provide a sounder and more up-to-date legislative basis to govern planning and development activities in the territory. I thank the Assembly for its support of the bill and I commend it to the Assembly.
Clause 1 agreed to.
Remainder of bill, by leave, taken as a whole and agreed to.
Bill, as amended, agreed to.
Gaming Machine (Club Governance) Amendment Bill 2011
Debate resumed from 5 May 2011, on motion by Mr Barr:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (11.19): This bill has been brought on for debate at relatively short notice, and I think it is disappointing to see that the bill contains some proposals which are most significant and most concerning for the club industry in the ACT. I will note at the outset that the opposition does not support all the provisions in this bill, and I will be moving two amendments to remove some provisions in the bill.
I do thank the minister for arranging briefings on the bill at short notice, and we had a robust discussion about a number of the issues which are raised by the bill. I do note that in one respect there is a need to implement the provisions relating to the changed arrangements for the community contribution from 1 July 2001. These relate to the changes to establish the problem gambling assistance fund and the increase in the rate of community contributions to provide funds for this new fund.
The genesis for much of this bill is a report from the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission. Members will recall that the commission was asked to conduct an inquiry into various matters relating to the governance of ACT clubs after the fiasco of the Labor Club, at the behest of the Labor Party, proposing to sell its gaming machine licences to another entity and the questions which were raised about the nature of that proposed transaction.
The bill before us today is in large part, therefore, a response to the commission’s report. A number of the proposals in this bill do not present any difficulty to the opposition or indeed, on consultation, to the club industry. There are two provisions, however, which are of significant concern.
The first concern relates to the proposed new section 53B. This section is intended to give the Gambling and Racing Commission the power to direct a club to change its
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