Page 532 - Week 02 - Thursday, 9 March 2006
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pinch a little credit or take the gloss off the government’s good work, but that was the first we saw of anybody from the opposition taking an interest in it.
Nevertheless, I think you will find that the Canberra Racing Club is very pleased with the relationship that it has built with government and I think that it is very pleased with the relationship that it continues to have with RacingNSW. There are probably one or two more hurdles, excuse the pun, to negotiate before we are finally there, but we are pretty close and I am reasonably confident that the Canberra Racing Club will be standing on its own feet very shortly and working, as it does, closely with RacingNSW. I thank the opposition for its support of this bill.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Detail stage
Bill, by leave, taken as a whole.
MR QUINLAN (Molonglo—Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Business, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Sport and Recreation, and Minister for Racing and Gaming) (11.47): I seek leave to move together amendments Nos 1 to 4 circulated in my name.
Leave granted.
MR QUINLAN: I move amendments Nos 1 to 4 circulated in my name [see schedule 3 at page 611]. I present a supplementary explanatory statement to the government amendments.
As I have just explained, the amendments are about fleshing out and giving comfort to RacingNSW within the framework of the original bill. They are, effectively, a rewrite, but they are an expansion of the original bill. They are more definitional and the adding of a degree of precision as opposed to changing the bill in any form. They have been vetted by layers of lawyers and we have been assured at all levels that there is agreement that the bill is a workable piece of legislation that achieves what we set out to achieve.
MR MULCAHY (Molonglo) (11.48): Mr Speaker, as I foreshadowed, the opposition will be pleased to support these amendments. I come from a family of lawyers and, as a non-lawyer, I share the Treasurer’s view of them, but we will not go there. Mr Speaker, I would also be interested, subsequent to this debate today, in hearing a little more about what remaining hurdles exist and in being comfortable, before the Treasurer chooses to retire, that maybe this whole matter will be settled, as the current coverage runs to 31 March. It sounds like we are going through the final stages, but it would be nice to see this thing completely settled and signed off before the end of the month.
Amendments agreed to.
Bill, as a whole, as amended, agreed to.
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