Page 2149 - Week 07 - Thursday, 20 August 2020
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I cannot be clearer than that. It is important for that to be clear when we get to the truth in advertising discussions a little bit later.
At 6.30 pm, in accordance with standing order 34, the debate was interrupted. The motion for the adjournment of the Assembly having been put and negatived, the debate was resumed.
MR RAMSAY: In addition, the definition of gambling business, as defined in the Greens’ amendment, is so broad that it would, for example, prevent the partner of a local newsagent from financially participating in the political process, which is a fairly outrageous concept.
On its face, the amendment is clearly unconstitutional, as it possibly interferes with the implied freedom of political communication and it sits outside the bounds of what the High Court has said are permissible restrictions on that freedom. It is important for the Assembly to note that legislation cannot simply be based on a political whim. It has to be held within the constitution that we have, within the constitutional framework, within the decisions and the reasoning of the High Court.
I also want to note for the Assembly that the government had discussion with the Greens in attempting to find some common ground in this space, in replacing the definition in this particular amendment with the reasonable definition that is found in the New South Wales legislation. It is the government’s view that if the Greens were serious about their intent to produce good legislation, rather than making political points, they would not have rejected that approach. The government will not be supporting Ms Le Couteur’s amendment.
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (6.34): I had not intended to speak, but Mr Ramsay’s comments really leave me no choice whatsoever. For him to come in here and say that they do not receive money from gambling interests is absolutely extraordinary. This is a party that set up the Canberra Labor Club that indirectly has 489 poker machines and that set up the 1973 Foundation that has an undisclosed amount of money, probably tens of millions of dollars of assets, that have all come from gambling revenue. For him to look at all of us with a straight face and put into the record of the Assembly that the Labor Party does not derive money from pokies, I think, is a lie.
Ms Cheyne: I am not sure that is parliamentary.
MADAM SPEAKER: That language was borderline, but he was not attributing that directly.
Mr Hanson: They do not want the fight. I hear that. They do not want the fight, do they?
MADAM SPEAKER: Do you want me to warn you? I think you were short of being—
Ms Cheyne: I thought he was warned.
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