Page 2925 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 15 August 2018

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Omit all words after “That this Assembly”, substitute:

“(1) notes the importance of a diverse, sustainable, and community-focused clubs sector, and commends the Government for its efforts to support clubs, particularly small and medium clubs, to move away from gaming machines as a source of revenue;

(2) notes the Government’s commitment to reducing harm from gaming through the Parliamentary Agreement for the 9th Legislative Assembly, including by:

(a) reducing the number of electronic gaming machines licenses in the ACT;

(b) exploring harm minimisation measures such as mandatory pre-commitment and bet limits;

(d) reviewing the current community contributions scheme with a view to maximising the direct benefit to the community from the scheme;

(3) notes the importance of a transparent, community-focused community contributions scheme that maximises benefits to community organisations from the regulation of the gambling industry;

(4) recognises that all clubs were established to promote particular community objectives, including many sporting and cultural groups, and notes that the Government has committed to support clubs to meet those important community purposes as part of its review of the community contributions scheme;

(5) recognises the issues raised with the current scheme in the following reports:

(a) the Auditor-General’s Report No 5 of 2018 into ACT Clubs’ Community Contributions, which found that guidelines for the scheme needed to be tightened, to prevent things like mobile phone bills for professional sports players being counted as a community contribution;

(b) the September 2017 Community Contributions Scheme Impact Analysis by Price Waterhouse Coopers, which found that more could be done to hold clubs accountable and make more community organisations aware that they could be accessing contributions; and

(c) the May 2017 Report by Dr Charles Livingstone for the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, which underscored the need for community contributions regulations to be strengthened; and

(6) calls on the Government to:

(a) take action to ensure that the ACT’s community contributions scheme is transparent, maximises returns to community organisations, and the clear failings identified in the Auditor-General’s report are addressed; and

(b) continue working with clubs to deliver more and more robust harm minimisation measures, to reduce the number of gaming machine authorisations in the Territory to 4000, and to support a diverse, sustainable, and community-focused clubs industry.”.

Let me begin by saying unequivocally that the government is firm in its commitment to a diverse, sustainable and community-focused club sector. We introduced tax rebates last year to support small and medium clubs to diversify their business. We

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