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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (3 December) . . Page.. 4514 ..

[COGNATE BILL AND MOTIONS:

Debate resumed from 19 February 1997, on motion by Mr Moore:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

MR SPEAKER: Is it the wish of the Assembly to debate this order of the day concurrently with the Gaming Machine (Amendment) Bill 1996 and the motions relating to the proposed board of inquiry into the gambling industry and the proposed social and economic impact study of the gambling industry? 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 orders of the day Nos 6, 7 and 8.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (8.45): Mr Speaker, it is always a challenge to debate four items cognately; but, to attempt to make sure that on this debate we do not go on for quite as long as we did last night, I will try to summarise the views of the Liberal Party on all four issues. The first issue is Mr Moore's Bill, which basically takes the classes of poker machines out of the Act and which, in reality, allows some level of poker machines in hotels and taverns. The Liberal Party will not be supporting this legislation, as we have made quite clear in the whole term of this Government. At the beginning of this term, we made a commitment not to move club-style poker machines into hotels and taverns during this term of the Assembly. Mr Speaker, we stand by that commitment.

I do not believe that at any stage has this Government ever given the hotel or tavern licensees any expectation that we would move. In fact, I think we have indicated time and time again that a commitment is a commitment is a promise, Mr Speaker.

Mr Moore: Contrast that with the core promises of your colleagues.

MRS CARNELL: But we do not have core promises. We just have promises. I accept that some other colleagues are a bit interesting.

Mr Speaker, we do, however, recognise that these restrictions on poker machines need to be looked at. The reason they need to be looked at is that the national competition policy agreement requires all ACT legislation to be reviewed over the next 18 months or so. Some have already been done, Mr Speaker. The quite large number of pieces of legislation with regard to gambling will be reviewed, probably early next year, or at least in the first half of next year. This means that the review will consider current restrictions to determine whether they can be justified on the ground of public interest.

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