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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 14 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 5172 ..

MR QUINLAN: A little. Occasionally we do. Today I think that the moving of this particular bill in this place might end up being top of the pops for a while.

Just as a matter of interest: I don't know where Mr Smyth got his money because his money went through head office. Smart thinking. So did Mr Humphries'. Smart thinking. Take the odds to it. They are a very friendly party, the Liberals. Mr Pratt got money from the friends of Brendan Smyth.

I think the point is that what we have here is virtually everybody in the place, including the Dems-

Ms Tucker: Not me.

MR QUINLAN: Yes, you're okay. I said you were okay. Did you not hear that? I said you were okay.

Mr Cornwell: I'm all right too, I think.

MR QUINLAN: At least every political group in this place has been supported by gambling.

Ms Tucker: No, the Greens haven't. We're a political group.

MR QUINLAN: No, you are excluded. My opening was that you are pure as the driven snow. I said that; you should have been listening to that. You are okay. The rest of us are in the same boat.

What we have here, Mr Speaker, undeniably is a purely political manoeuvre. It has nothing to do with high principle, which we may or may not hear during the next turgid hour or so.

But I have to say, Mr Speaker, that there is not a lot more to be said other than I believe-and I firmly believe-that politics does deserve support and that support for politics is not a lesser action than support for other community activity. I also believe that in virtually every case-except for Ms Tucker and the Greens, that political group over there, that small group over there-everybody here has been in some way or another associated with not only the gains of gambling but in many cases tobacco and alcohol.

How can you in principle differentiate? We will hear something about quantum at a later stage, and that will make the difference. If you are doing well, you are bad; if you are just getting a bit, you are only a little bit pregnant.

Mr Speaker, as you can gather, the government will not be supporting this bill.

MR STEFANIAK (9.35): I don't know that you are going to get any high morals, principles or rantings from me or any rantings about the evils of poker machines. I have said in this place on a number of occasions in relation to poker machines and the revenue that clubs actually do get from them that a lot of that is poured back into the community.

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