Page 946 - Week 04 - Thursday, 3 May 2007

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prima facie, the eligibility of the reported contributions as community contributions. Due to the volume of data, the time taken to conduct eligibility testing and the short statutory reporting time frame, the commission initially relies to a large extent on the licensees’ declaration that their reported data is accurate. During the year, an audit program is conducted to verify a sample of contributions reported by licensees.

The commission became aware during the financial year that some gaming machine licensees may have mistakenly reported contributions to “associated entities” of political parties that were in fact contributions to “associated organisations” of the club. These two terms are defined in the act and have quite different meanings.

To confirm whether in fact there had been confusion amongst some licensees and to determine the level of any over-reporting of political contributions, the commission conducted a complete audit of the contributions reported by the licensees. I have been advised that the audit identified a number of licensees that originally reported such contributions confirmed that they had indeed misinterpreted “associated entity” to be that of “associated organisation”.

Consequently, the reported contributions amount of $776,756 to registered political parties and associated entities has been amended to $378,676. This is a reduction of $398,079 or 51.25 per cent. The most significant change was $313,180 erroneously reported by the Canberra Raiders sports group when in fact they made no political donations at all. This is 79 per cent of the total correction made.

These amendments and any further amendments resulting from other audits conducted by the commission throughout the year will be incorporated in the 2006-07 community contributions report which will be tabled later this year. However, in order to ensure clarity and transparency, I table the updated figures in relation to political contributions and associated entities for the information of members.

Indigenous education

Paper and statement by minister

MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Minister for Industrial Relations): For the information of members I present the following paper:

Indigenous Education—Performance in Indigenous Education—Annual report 2006.

I seek leave to make a statement.

Leave granted.

MR BARR: This report on indigenous education covers the period January to December 2006. The key indicators for measuring progress made by indigenous students in ACT government schools are those identified by the Council of Australian Governments and articulated in the Overcoming indigenous disadvantage: key indicators report. These indicators reflect the major factors that need to improve if


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