Page 1630 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2016
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Do we want that to continue? Do you want the spectre of what happened in Sydney to visit Gungahlin and Belconnen, north Canberra and south Canberra, and Woden and Weston? That is the area that this will impact on.
We have a different model here. We have the community gaming model. It has worked. It will continue to work if we give it the assistance that it requires, that the tripartisan report from the public accounts committee suggested. It will not survive if the casino gets poker machines. It will not survive if we go to the for-profit model in this case.
Let us have that connection to community which is the basis of success. Let it continue to be community owned and community operated and let the dividend stay in our community.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Minister for Planning and Land Management, Minister for Racing and Gaming and Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations) (3.50): I am very pleased to speak today on this matter of public importance, the importance of the community gaming model, the model in the ACT which has long been recognised by this government. In broad terms the model requires community clubs to be not for profit. In recognition of the potential harm gaming machines can have, community clubs are also required to contribute a prescribed percentage of their gaming machine revenue to the community.
The Gaming Machine Act 2004 outlines broad purposes that contributions must meet to be approved as community contributions. The act provides that these contributions need to have the effect of contributing to or supporting the development of the community or raising the standard of living of the community or part of the community, and contributions can be made in the following areas: charitable or social welfare, problem gambling, sport and recreation, non-profit activities and community infrastructure.
Mandatory reporting of community contributions made by licensees was introduced in 1997. The ACT Gambling and Racing Commission, which is now part of Access Canberra, is required to report to me as Minister for Racing and Gaming, within four months of the end of the financial year, on community contributions made by gaming machine licensees. The report provides a summary of the extent of compliance by licensees and provides analysis of the extent to which revenue received by licensees has been used to make community contributions during the prior financial year.
For the 2014-15 financial year clubs were required to make a minimum level of community contribution equal to eight per cent of the club’s net gaming machine revenue. In 2014-15, 49 clubs, six hotel and three tavern gaming machine licensees made community contributions to the value of $18,879,162, which was 12.62 per cent of the net gaming machine revenue. Of this total figure in 2014-15, licensees contributed $1,065,000 to charitable and social welfare, $84,103 to problem gambling, $1,001,525 to the problem gambling assistance fund, which includes research undertaken by the ANU, $7,490,535 to sport and recreation, $445,057 to women’s sport, $1,738,284 to non-profit activities, and $65,628 to community infrastructure. You can see that clubs do make quite a contribution to the community.
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