Page 3343 - Week 09 - Thursday, 24 August 2017
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and keep people safe. To support these initiatives, the 2017-18 budget provides $4.866 million over four years for extra police patrols to support safer night-life precincts in the city. The funding also covers a 2017-18 education campaign for the responsible consumption of alcohol. The additional police resources will provide greater coverage of the broader ACT, focusing on regional centres and entertainment precincts.
The government is also committed to developing a regulatory regime that supports this community’s vibrant night-life while ensuring public safety. That is why the government brought forward legislation which the Assembly passed in April to improve our regulations around alcohol. The new laws include a statutory right for licensees to evict or refuse entry to people who are intoxicated, violent, quarrelsome or disorderly, and power for the Commissioner for Fair Trading to impose specific conditions, such as requiring venues to install CCTV.
In addition to having a robust, sensible regulatory scheme for alcohol, this government is focused on harm minimisation in regulating the gambling industry. As part of this we are committed to helping community clubs to diversify their revenue streams away from gaming revenue. In the 2017-18 budget there is $0.2 million to support Canberra’s small and medium clubs. This commitment will see the government deliver a 50 per cent gaming tax rebate to small to medium clubs and club groups, which are those clubs with gross gaming revenue below $4 million a year.
In addition, small to medium clubs will be eligible to apply for the $10,000 community club grant to assist them to diversify away from gaming machine revenue. Both of these measures will help support clubs to focus on community service and to reduce their reliance on gaming machines.
It is with great pleasure that I speak in support of these initiatives in the appropriation bill, which on all fronts support and progress the government’s commitment to an accessible, transparent and timely justice system and increased community safety and participation for all. I commend the bill to the Assembly.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (12.21): I speak today specifically about the budget’s investment in family violence. The Greens are very pleased at the significant increased investment of $21.4 million in 2016-17 in addressing domestic and family violence.
There are a number of initiatives in the safer family packages that have changed, and will continue to change, the way we respond to this issue in our community. I will talk about some here. By far, these initiatives are positive and welcome and I support them, but there are a few areas I would like to comment on.
It is a shame that the integrated case management and training in domestic violence for front-line workers has had to be postponed, but I very much trust that it will occur in this current year and those funds will not be reallocated.
While I acknowledge that there has been an injection of funding to front-line services, I note that women’s refuges are not included. To me, this is a significant and
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