Page 2813 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 June 2012
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bill and its proposed amendments. The amendments as detailed in the bill can be organised basically into three categories: the potential reduction of the maximum number of gaming machines allowed on all licensed premises in the ACT from 5,024 to 4,000. I use the word “potential” because, as I will discuss later, that was one of the things the committee felt was not actually going to happen under this bill. Secondly, the introduction of a $250 per day ATM limit withdrawal at licensed premises and, thirdly, the introduction of a gaming machine relocation scheme.
Each of the amendments are, we hoped, responsive to the two overarching objectives of the bill as put forward by the government—that is, to maintain the important roles clubs play in the community and, secondly, to seek to address problem gambling. The committee has considered the proposed amendments within the wider context of problem gambling and the economic and social contribution the club sector makes to the ACT community. In addition, the committee also considered the position submitted by Casino Canberra that it be granted gaming machine licences and the bounded nature of the territory’s community gaming model.
The committee has set out detailed comments in relation to each of the key proposed amendments in the context of the two overarching objectives together with relevant matters in its report. The committee has made 17 recommendations which, in the main, are related to the proposed amendments and the bill’s overarching objectives.
The overarching context for the committee’s inquiry was focused on electronic gaming machines, otherwise known as poker machines. The committee as a whole held the view that electronic gaming machines, if misused, have the potential to cause considerable harm to the community, public health and general wellbeing. A recent study prepared for UnitingCare found:
Poker machines clearly extract significant financial resources from already disadvantaged communities ... that the impacts of poker machine losses are felt at every level, by individuals, their families, in lower spending in other local businesses and by other fundraising organisations ... The amounts (from poker machines) expended on community benefit purposes appear to be large only if they are reported without reference to the total losses on poker machines in that location. Poker machines thus provide an extremely inefficient and high cost method for funding community sporting and charitable activities.
The committee received a number of submissions to its inquiry and it was grateful it was able to draw upon a wide range of expertise and experience in its deliberations. The committee also recognises the significant commitment of time and resources required to participate in an inquiry of this nature. The committee wishes to thank all of the stakeholders that contributed to its inquiry by making submissions, providing additional information and/or appearing before it to give evidence.
Before making my usual concluding remarks about thanking my fellow committee members and the secretariat, I would like to talk about my views. Despite being committee chair, at the end of the report you will find dissenting comments. I agonised for a while as to whether they were best described as a dissenting report or dissenting comments or additional comments. The recommendations of the majority of the report also changed a bit during this time.
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