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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (24 May) . . Page.. 1740 ..


MR QUINLAN (continuing):

I do not believe that Mr Howard's 12 months' moratorium will achieve much at all. I believe that he has had time to at least follow that up with some sort of expert opinion that says, "Yes we can in fact enforce this moratorium for 12 months." But we have seen nothing. We have just got Mr Howard's very old-fashioned views. I have to say I am pleased to see that Mr Humphries is at loggerheads with Mr Howard-that gives me a little bit of vicarious delight.

Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I seek leave to make a minor alteration to the amendments circulated in my name.

Leave granted.

MR QUINLAN: The first amendment to paragraph (2) seeks to omit the words "to thoroughly investigate and". I would like to leave the word "to" in the motion. The amendment will now read:

Paragraph (2), omit the words "thoroughly investigate and".

I now seek leave to move the amendments together.

Leave granted.

MR QUINLAN: I move:

No. 1: Paragraph ( 2), omit the words "thoroughly investigate and".

No. 2: Paragraph (2) (a), omit the paragraph.

No. 3: Paragraph (2) (b), omit the word "online" and substitute "interactive".

In the first case, the term "thoroughly investigate" could mean to launch into a PhD thesis and take as much time as is necessary. It is just so open-ended it could take forever and I doubt very much whether it could take a reasonably short time. I think we really should address this question fairly promptly.

Similarly, the second amendment seeks to remove part (a) of paragraph 2. Again, those few words imply a comprehensive study and as a result our moratorium might be extended beyond that of Mr Howard's, God forbid!

The third amendment seeks to replace the term "online" with the term "interactive". This is to distinguish between the communication of sports bets et cetera, which is a very common occurrence right now, and interactive gambling, where you are actually playing a game contemporaneously with the provider. All of these amendments seek to make the requirement that we are imposing upon the commission manageable and they address Internet gambling without casting the net too wide. I commend my amendments to the Assembly.

MS TUCKER (

9:18): I would like to speak to the amendments. Amendment No 2 seeks to omit the words "the issues of social and economic impact of online gambling". Mr Kaine said it-and I find that pretty extraordinary. We set up the Gambling and


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