Page 899 - Week 03 - Thursday, 7 April 2022
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The bill also makes amendments to the Race and Sports Bookmaking Act 2001 and the Race and Sports Bookmaking Regulation 2001 to provide that only corporations and not individuals or syndicates may hold a sports bookmaking licence. Sports bookmaking involves carrying on the business of receiving or negotiating sports bets, other than conducting a totalisator. As the only licensed sports bookmaker in the ACT is a corporate bookmaker, the amendments to remove individuals from the licensing provision give effect to how the industry currently operates in the territory.
The amendments are intended to maintain a public health approach to gambling harm prevention within the ACT. In 2020-21, 17 per cent of clients of the ACT Gambling Support Service listed sports betting as the most problematic form of gambling for them. The amendments to restrict sports bookmaker licences to corporations is expected to limit the number of people who can apply for a licence in the future to help mitigate the risk of an increase in sports betting services over time.
As with the amendments to the licensing framework for gaming machine suppliers, the amendments to the Race and Sports Bookmaking Act will also ensure that sports bookmakers are subject to a more robust and multifaceted regulatory environment due to their registration under the Corporations Act.
The bill also makes a range of minor and technical amendments to the Retirement Villages Act and the Retirement Villages Regulation to clarify uncertainties predominantly relating to meeting procedures. These changes seek to help retirement village residents better understand their rights and obligations.
I am pleased to report to the Assembly that the bill being introduced today is a human rights compliant bill which will significantly enhance consumer protections for our community. I commend the bill to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Mr Parton) adjourned to the next sitting.
Environment, Climate Change and Biodiversity—Standing Committee
Statement by chair
DR PATERSON (Murrumbidgee) (11.11): Pursuant to standing order 246A, I wish to make a statement on behalf of the Standing Committee on Environment, Climate Change and Biodiversity.
At its private meeting on 29 March 2022, the committee resolved not to conduct an inquiry into the fossil emblem for the ACT. The committee noted that the ACT government had conducted a public vote on five fossils specific to the ACT that were selected by experts in the industry. A total of 1,135 votes were cast, with the winning fossil, Batocara mitchelli, receiving 30 per cent of the votes. There are a lot of enthusiastic fossil people in the ACT.
The fossil that was chosen is one of the most common fossils found in the ACT. It is a trilobite, a marine animal that lived in the water that used to cover the ACT. The
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