Page 3483 - Week 11 - Thursday, 15 November 2007
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seriously and genuinely to address the issues of problem gambling. But I think it is a bit rough and I think we are overdoing the focus on clubs. The established clubs, those that run the clubs and those that seek to serve their community out of the generosity of their hearts and their spirit are constantly under attack for somehow being part of some industry that is just not quite right and that there is something just a little bit turgid or seedy about the contribution which clubs make as a result of their association with poker machines or gambling.
I do not accept it. I do not believe that the clubs should be forced continuously to defend themselves. It is only two to three months ago that we went through a tortuous, turgid debate, which at one point included reference to my morality because I am a member of the Labor Party, and therefore associated with the Labor Club, which apparently actually renders me incapable of governing or leading the territory in any way.
Just look at the contributions of the Southern Cross Club. It is a club created, once again, by a people with a community of interest; namely, the Knights of the Southern Cross. They are leading members of the Catholic Church within the ACT. They came together and now control one of the four largest club groups within the territory. The Knights of the Southern Cross donate $1.3 million or thereabouts a year, year after year after year. They are two wonderful organisations doing wonderful work, and all of that money—every single dollar of it—is the proceeds of poker machines, as are the funds of the CFMEU. It is part of the broader labour movement which supports political candidates of all persuasions—well, perhaps not of a conservative persuasion. It supports all reasonable political parties.
It seems to me that this continuing focus on a group is unfortunate. Coincidentally, I met with them yesterday, without knowing that this particular debate would be happening today, to hear of their continuing and perhaps simmering resentment—that would not be overstating it—at the unfair, uninformed attacks which clubs suffer in the ACT in the context of what they believe. I think their frustration is a result of their genuine honest, heartfelt and reasonable belief that they are doing really good things in the community. Go and speak to the board of any club in the ACT. They are proud of what they do. They are enormously proud of the contributions that they make.
Some of their contributions are massive. To take the Vikings club down in the valley, their level of capital investment in sport is in the millions of dollars, and every other organisation has a similar story to tell in relation to their contributions to the community. Their frustration is that they do not understand why they have got to keep explaining themselves when all of their experience, with just under 200,000 Canberrans being members of clubs, is that there is constant sniping at their legitimacy and their operations. They pay all the taxes that the government asks of them, to the tune of more than $30 million a year, which the government then gratefully expends in the delivery of government services. As well, since the instigation of the community contributions scheme, they have contributed almost double what is required of them.
They are asked to contribute seven per cent to the community but for the last few years they have never dropped below 12, and they are proud of that. We ask them for seven per cent and they give 12 because of their commitment to the community. They
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