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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 9 Hansard (22 August) . . Page.. 3183 ..

Mr Humphries: That's clearly not right, on those figures, is it? Because they only make $100,000 in a whole year out of the whole thing.

MR STANHOPE: Well, you don't know that.

Mr Humphries: Why would they stop running the jobs in those circumstances?

MR STANHOPE: That is not the question at all. It's a question of whether or not it costs clubs more to close them down than to keep them open. I think that is one of the points here; that you actually refuse-

Mr Humphries: They only make $100,000 in a whole year, across the entire territory. Why would they not stay open?

MR STANHOPE: That's a decision for the club. There are costs, Chief Minister, in closing down a club that I think you do not appreciate.

Mr Humphries: Then keep them open.

MR STANHOPE: So they keep them open, but do nothing. They basically just keep the staff on. You know they are not going to do that. At the moment they are employing staff during that period for a range of reasons. You remove all reasons for the clubs to remain open.

Mr Humphries: Is this ridiculous or isn't it?

MR STANHOPE: No, you miss the point. You say, "We won't allow them to sell alcohol and we won't allow the poker machines to operate, but we are not really requiring them to close down. We just expect them to keep rolling over in the face of that." To suggest that there will be no impact on employment really is a nonsense. There must be an impact on employment if this step is taken.

I think the crux of the matter is that we are taking this knee-jerk response at this time in advance of a report which is going to be tabled in two weeks time. The Chief Minister has indicated a whole range of possible policy responses that will need to be taken to address the issue of problem gambling. I have indicated that the Labor Party accepts and acknowledges that many of the initiatives which the Chief Minister has suggested, and which we have all considered in our research on this issue, may be initiatives that we will have to take here in the ACT. They are issues which ClubsACT and the responsible clubs are already putting in place. That should be our formal, our strategic, and our thinking response to this issue of problem gambling. We should not respond in this way.

Mr Kaine wants some detailed evidence, and the Labor Party commits to this as well. If there is some evidence that this initiative will have any impact in addressing problem gambling the Labor Party will support it. But show us the evidence first. Don't just jump up and say, "Gee, this sounds like a good idea."

Mr Rugendyke: You haven't spoken to Lifeline then, have you. You haven't sought Lifeline's view. That's because of your conflict of interest.

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