Page 1638 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2016
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moving forward with that sort of package for clubs. He expected that there would be no tripartisan agreement. He never expected that that would happen, and when it did, instead of accepting it, he dismissed it.
Let me be very clear about this. I will put it on the record, so that it is in Hansard and so that people can hear it. They have heard about it previously but let me be very clear about it. We support the community gaming model as it is now, but we are open to improvements, enhancements and ongoing discussions with clubs to make sure that it is not just a static document but something that can evolve as the need occurs. But we support the community gaming model.
We fully support the recommendations of the committee inquiry led by Mr Smyth. If we are in government, we will implement them. We will not support pokies in the casino. Let me be very clear and put it on the record: we do not support pokies in the casino. If we form government in October, the clubs will prosper; the clubs will do well. We are not going to agree on everything, but we support the clubs because of the work they do in the community. We will not give pokies to the casino and we will implement the full recommendations of the committee inquiry.
Discussion concluded.
Executive members’ business—precedence
Ordered that executive members’ business be called on.
Freedom of Information Bill 2016
Mr Rattenbury, pursuant to notice, presented the bill and its explanatory statement.
Title read by Clerk.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (4.21): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
I am pleased to be tabling this legislation to establish a new system of freedom of information for the ACT. It is a bill that, when passed, will ensure the ACT is one of the most open jurisdictions in the country in regards to government information.
The nature of governments across western democracies is that while they often espouse values of openness and transparency, and a desire to govern in the public interest, they have a long-held culture of protectiveness and secrecy.
Former High Court judge Michael Kirby described the origins of the problem that this bill is designed to overcome when he wrote:
Australian public administration inherited a culture of secrecy traceable to the traditions of the counsellors of the Crown dating to the Norman Kings of England. Those traditions were reinforced in later dangerous Tudor times by
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