Page 3486 - Week 11 - Thursday, 15 November 2007
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I was very happy—I am quite happy to claim a fair bit of credit for this—in relation to the seven per cent that clubs are now paying. In fact, they pay a lot more. It is up to the club to decide; I think clubs do a pretty good job in deciding. Most of it goes to sports, because most of these clubs are sporting clubs.
You mentioned the Labor Club. Apparently they have $84,000 which goes to the charitable and social welfare area—$304,000 for sport. That is a club that is not necessarily set up as a sporting club. There are some other clubs who give most of it to charity, because they are not sporting clubs but are clubs set up for a different purpose.
At the end of the day, it is far better for the clubs to deliver on this requirement. It was not there before. It is a formal legal requirement that they have to do at least seven per cent in the way they see best and the way in which their members would want that money spent. That is reflected through their boards. It is pretty basic. Most of it goes to sports because most of these clubs have been set up as sporting clubs and that is what their members want. Most people in Canberra—I would say over 50 per cent—are members of clubs. That is what the majority of the community want to see happening in terms of its licensed clubs.
I am a bit surprised about the contributions—and I would be fascinated to see the figures next year. The Chief Minister said that the contributions were nearly 12 per cent—11.74, I see—in terms of what clubs actually contribute under the contributions scheme. That is well and above the seven per cent. That is despite the fact that clubs have huge problems with things like the restrictions requiring only $20 notes to be put in poker machines. That caused a lot of angst and a drop in funds coming into clubs. The smoking laws came in; that cost clubs a lot. It will be interesting to see the effect next year: the double whammy of the smoking laws and the increased taxes from 1 July 2007 will have a very real effect.
I talk to clubs a lot and so does my colleague Mr Smyth—indeed, the opposition does. Clubs are doing it tough. Clubs are hurting because of the policies of this government. Some clubs are pretty close to going to the wall. I would hate to see a number of these smaller and medium-sized clubs going to the wall. That would probably have an effect, especially in terms of the breadth of donations. And that, as much as anything, is because we have had some misguided government policies.
What the clubs probably want now more than anything else is certainty—no more changes. Let them get on with the job. They do a good job. The fact that close on 12 per cent of their net gain in revenue goes back in contributions is quite significant. The figure of seven or 7½ per cent which has been bandied about—it finished up at seven—was worked out after a lot of discussion and a lot of mapping out as a reasonable figure that clubs could afford to pay. Clubs have a hell of a lot of other overheads which are taken up. It is very pleasing to see such a significant contribution in tough times for clubs.
We can expect to see a number of clubs go to the wall. That is a real fear. That will take a great chunk out of the Canberra community. Clubs provide cheap entertainment and cheap eating venues. Sure, it is as a result of poker machines, and maybe it is a
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