Page 42 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 10 February 2015
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we will move a motion in Assembly business this week to establish a select committee to look specifically at this issue of note acceptors and the limit on the amount of money that can be put into a poker machine. And we will look at this issue from a number of different angles. A cash input limit could be a limit on the denomination of the note accepted by the machine, the number of notes entered by an individual player, the total value of notes entered by an individual or a combination of some or all of these options.
It is my wish that this Assembly can be grown-up in its consideration of this issue, and that a select committee can provide a unanimous recommendation to the government on any reform in this area. If a unanimous recommendation cannot be reached then there will be no reform. In the context of regulation of gaming machines in this city, given the level of politics associated with that, it is my view that regulatory reform requires at the very least bipartisan and, preferably, the unanimous support of members in this place. If that is not present then there can be no reform. It is as simple as that. If there is not bipartisan or unanimous support for reform of gaming machine regulation, that reform will not go ahead. It is as straightforward as that.
I want to put on the record today my gratitude to Minister Burch for working incredibly hard over an extended period of time on a range of significant areas of policy reform for this government. The national disability insurance scheme is hard, grinding work that Minister Burch has been involved in from the start. She has provided a huge amount of leadership and given the ACT and the people of the ACT absolute surety that there is a minister who is passionate and who cares about people that is guiding this important social reform for this community.
In education, Minister Burch continues a very fine legacy of reform in the education portfolio from this Labor government to ensure that the best teachers are recruited into our classrooms, that our education system continues to lead the nation and is amongst the best in the world. Minister Burch has worked incredibly hard with all sectors of the ACT education system over an extended period of time and has provided leadership and support for that sector.
Ministers do make mistakes from time to time, and it takes a lot of courage to own up to those mistakes. Minister Burch has done so on this occasion. This motion today from the Liberal Party reeks of political desperation—anything to get the agenda off their own issues. It should not be supported by this Assembly because Minister Burch continues to have the confidence of the majority of members in this place.
Politics is politics; we all understand that. The Liberal Party will waste the time of this chamber on motions like this from time to time. We all, of course, understand that. That is the game. That is what Mr Hanson is about. He is a game player. He loves that. That is why he turns up every day—not to make a difference to people’s lives, not to institute the reforms that matter for the people of Canberra, but to play political games. That is what we have seen this morning and that is what I am sure we will continue to see from the Liberal opposition.
Let me be very clear: ministers who have the courage to own up to a mistake, fix it and move on with implementing good policy for the people of Canberra deserve the
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