Page 2867 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 21 October 1992
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The people of Canberra have the right to know who is behind this treacherous plot to expose the community of Canberra to such unnecessary temptation. It is unfortunate that Canberra is still not providing a clean and civilised Night life because landlords are only interested in money and occupation of their empty premises (remember the sex shops in Civic). It is for these reasons that a Casino will attract too many people hungry for excitement. The result will be tragic for too many Canberra families and traders.
Ms Follett, are those millions worth the misery they will bring to many innocent people? You and your Government must take the blame.
GUS PETERSILKA.
I do not agree with everything in this advertisement. However, I thought it worth mentioning that, if there is one person in Canberra who has stood up for long to present arguments on behalf of the people of Canberra, it is Gus Petersilka. If there is one person who has spent a great deal of their own money, it is Gus Petersilka. As we all know, Gus is somewhat of a local monument when it comes to standing up for important issues. He is a good example for people to follow in getting involved.
As I said, I do not agree with everything Gus says; but some of the points he makes are quite relevant, particularly where he talks about the money coming into the casino. I too agree that most of the money going into the casino will be coming from local people. I note that Mr Berry is laughing. I am not sure whether it is because of what I said about most of the money coming from locals. I think that time will tell. As a member of the casino inquiry, I found that pawnshops, particularly in South Australia, had done somewhat of a roaring trade with people who were pawning goods so that they could gamble their money away. It is a problem. Considering the image of Canberra as the nation's capital, I think we would have been able to do far better than to have us known as the porn capital or the casino city, or any of these other things. What about something different for the nation's capital?
Lions Club
MS ELLIS (4.55): Madam Speaker, I rise to relate a story of an incident that I very much enjoyed a couple of weeks ago. One lunchtime when I had an hour to spare on a fine day I went for a walk over to Floriade. Much to my surprise - I was in ignorance of what I was about to see - I saw a Lions Club minibus heading off through the walkways of Floriade, full of elderly citizens from one of our nursing home and retirement village establishments. Having spotted this bus and knowing the two gentlemen driving and commentating in the bus, I headed over and said, "How are you allowed to do this? What are you doing?". I was told that every year, for about three years now, the Lions have had this rather remarkable timetable with their minibus, in that they now have to book it up weeks in advance for Floriade. They go around to retirement villages, nursing homes and the like in the ACT and collect a bus load of people who, for various reasons, could not go through Floriade, and the ACT Parks people allow them to go through most of the Floriade area in this small bus.
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