Page 3586 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 27 October 2015
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Rec 23 is particularly important. Rec 23 says:
The Committee recommends that the Government work with the community sector to establish a screen for problem gambling when assisting clients.
One group who came before the committee said that often you will be dealing with a client who is in some difficulty, and the root cause of it, which may be problem gambling, never comes up. People are embarrassed to say it. There needs to be some sort of screen developed to allow them to at least get to the root cause of the problem because until we do that we will not be able to really address that problem. So recommendation 23 is very important.
Rec 24 says that all electronic gaming machine payouts over $800 should be paid by cheque or electronic funds transfer. Again, in rec 25, we go back to the national issues. The committee recommends that the government pursue, at a national level, maximum $1 bet and spin rates so that there is a nationally consistent approach. Rec 26 offers some tax concessions. It says:
The Committee recommends that the Government investigate differential tax rates for clubs that have better problem gambling measures in place.
Indeed that could be linked to recommendation 29, which says:
The Committee recommends that the Government further investigate the liquor licensing system to ensure that it rewards low risk venues.
The majority of our clubs, let us face it, are low risk venues. Rec 27 talks about case managers to help with the diversification process. Rec 28 asks the government to report to the Assembly on a regular basis on how that diversification is going. As I said, recs 30 and 31 say that we should put in a cash input limit of $250 and when that is in place we should remove the note denomination limits.
Recs 32 and 33 look at linking and electronic reporting. The committee recommends, in rec 32, that the government investigate the feasibility of introducing a central electronic link monitoring system and that the government move to an electronic-based system for the reporting of gaming machine movements. Rec 34 is about storage of machines.
We now get to rec 35. We were still putting this together late yesterday afternoon and one of the recommendations has unfortunately fallen out. So rec 35, and what will now become an addendum called rec 35A, talk about water. In rec 35A the committee recommends that the government refer the question of establishing a community pricing point to the ICRC. Water is a vexed issue for a number of our clubs, and not just for the golf clubs. Some of the clubs own ovals and, of course, there are bowling greens. Water is expensive. In New South Wales they have a community pricing point. Is it beyond the ken of the ACT to have the same thing?
In a broader recommendation, rec 35, the committee recommends that the government consider extending the WAC subsidy for existing golf clubs to others that have
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video