Page 2538 - Week 08 - Thursday, 19 August 1993
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About 90 per cent of Australian children have the first three doses of triple antigen for diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough and also the polio vaccine, but a much smaller proportion of children get the booster shots which are important to ensure that those diseases are kept at bay. That undoubtedly reflects, I suspect, a certain relaxed attitude on the part of the community towards these issues. We must educate, of course, as our first port of call. If we fail to achieve our objectives through education it may be that we need to examine the question of some form of compulsion. Although that is not a course of action that I, as a Liberal, prefer to embark upon in any area of public life, it is a question which I think we must consider as we examine the full capacity of our armoury to defend ourselves against these deadly diseases. Madam Speaker, it is an important debate to have and I hope that the tenor of the debate here and in the community will be of the kind we have had today rather than the kind we saw a few weeks ago when ill-informed opinion seemed to take hold and become the dominant element of debate.
MADAM SPEAKER: The discussion is now concluded.
GAMING MACHINE (AMENDMENT) BILL 1993
[COGNATE BILL:
TAXATION (ADMINISTRATION) (AMENDMENT) BILL 1993]
Debate resumed from 18 August 1993, on motion by Ms Follett:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MADAM SPEAKER: Is it the wish of the Assembly to debate this order of the day concurrently with the Taxation (Administration) (Amendment) Bill 1993? There being no objection, that course will be followed. I remind members that in debating order of the day No. 5 they may also address their remarks to order of the day No. 6.
MS SZUTY (4.08): Madam Speaker, I generally support the initiatives contained in the Gaming Machine (Amendment) Bill and the Taxation (Administration) (Amendment) Bill. Earlier today both Mr Kaine and I attended a briefing on this Bill which was provided for us by the Chief Minister's officers, and we were able to go very carefully through the issues which Mr Kaine raised in the Assembly yesterday. We spent about an hour going through those issues, discussing them and resolving them in our minds.
Late last week I also took the opportunity to receive from the same officers a briefing on the Bill and the detail of the Bill. Not being a person particularly familiar with gaming machine environments, I raised the issue of the definition of the word "credit" and how it applied in the gaming machine environment. Of course, the word "credit" can have two meanings. When you put money in a gaming machine you get a credit for the unspent amount. The other more generally understood meaning relates to consumer affairs issues. It has come to my attention that one club in the ACT provides its customers with cash advances on Bankcard. It seems to me, Madam Speaker, that this presents the opportunity for club members and customers to gain access to cash quickly and, if so desired,
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