Page 3344 - Week 08 - Thursday, 23 August 2012
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But what the clubs have asked for, particularly over the last five years, is a degree of certainty about their future, what is it that the government expects of them, what is it that the Assembly expects of them, and if they could please have some certainty in administration of their act. And we have seen change after change after change over the last five years, whether it be the introduction of requirements to move smoking into segregated areas or to ban it virtually at all, outright, or other things in regard to the act itself, things like the role of directors and their functions in the club. What they are after is certainty and what they are after is a path forward that would allow them the ability to meet the changes that are occurring in our society that are reflected in the use of gaming machines.
As one of the treasurers of one of our significant club groups said in an annual report a couple of years ago, the golden age of gaming is over, the massive profits that clubs used to reap have disappeared and many of our clubs now trade at very marginal rates and very marginal returns on the significant investment that they have. The downside of that is that the moneys that they put back into the community through their community grant schemes will also lessen. Many of us were there the other day at the Southern Cross Club where in their annual event they gave out significant numbers of cheques of small and medium amounts to a huge number of who’s who of Canberra charities. There were a huge number of MLAs there. I think there were 10 or 11 MLAs there at the lunch, which is quite extraordinary. But I think it affirms the value of how we see our clubs and the value of the role that they play in our community.
Hopefully what this bill, very heavily amended, will do is make sure that we have a process, particularly for new clubs to set up in greenfield sites, that we will have a facility that will allow clubs to transfer their machines between venues, under strict guidelines as set out in the amendments, and that we will have a process for the future, because when one reads the government’s response to the standing committee it is good that they have taken on board a large number of the recommendations. They are agreed or agreed to in principle. That really does set the tone for what we will do in the future. We certainly need to get these amendments in place and we certainly need then to bed them down to give the clubs the certainty that they deserve.
With that, we will be supporting the amendments and therefore the amendment bill. I have one small amendment which I believe has just been circulated and we will get to that when we get to that part of the debate.
The other thing is that it was a very good process that the committee put in place. One of the things that I certainly appreciated was the honesty of those people that appeared, in explaining their position and the position of clubs throughout the territory, so that the committee had a better understanding of what was going on. I think you can see the influence of what people told us in the committee in the amendments that the minister has now tabled.
I refer particularly to Jerry Wilcox of the Rugby Union Club, who spoke about the impact of ATMs and limits on ATMs. He said, in fact, the club lives off the ATM margins, not particularly off the poker machines. There is an irony, and if we were to
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