Page 3503 - Week 09 - Thursday, 23 August 2018
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That never happened. It was never on the your say website. There it is in black and white in the media release on 4 July, but it never appeared on the your say website like most of the other consultations because I think they would rather have not got much feedback. They ended up getting a fair bit.
The minister also suggested in this chamber yesterday that he is only following through on the recommendations of the Auditor-General. I know that he would be well aware that the AG’s report was not scathing of the clubs. The Auditor-General spoke about the process and the guidelines provided to the clubs, and former Labor Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said just that in his a City News article yesterday. I have it here in front of me. Mr Stanhope said:
In any event, to deny a club the primary role in determining how its community contribution will be disbursed potentially subverts the very reason that the club was established and the basis of its existence and success.
Isn’t this remarkable? We are talking about a former Labor Chief Minister who has no love for poker machines. He has made it abundantly clear that he has no love for poker machines whatsoever.
I will quote some more from Mr Stanhope because he went on to say:
As I have said—
and this flies in the face of answers given by this minister in question time yesterday—
I think it is clear that these actions are a response to the political activism of ClubsACT during the last election to which the government has taken serious but unjustified exception.
That is not a Liberal scare campaign; that is the former Labor Chief Minister Jon Stanhope.
I will finish with another quote from Mr Stanhope who said:
The proposal to hypothecate community contributions to a central charity for disbursement is in effect to convert the contributions into a tax.
If the government is genuinely concerned that there are services and organisations missing out or falling through the cracks, then surely responsibility for that rests solely with the government.
That is former Chief Minister Jon Stanhope.
Clubs will close. When they do this minister is solely responsible. Jobs will be lost. When they are lost this minister is solely responsible. My message to the minister and everyone in this government is: leave our clubs alone.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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