Page 3717 - Week 12 - Thursday, 22 November 2007
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
amendment does achieve its intended purpose. My office is happy to be consulted should any further clarification of our concerns be required. I understand this is a legalistic concern but we know that it is best to make sure that legislation is cut and dried and lacks ambiguity, because loopholes can be exploited.
The provisions preventing the external visibility of gaming machines is a positive measure that I wholeheartedly support. The final issue that I would like to discuss is the new incentives for community contributions. Again I reiterate my support for any measures that aim to help community welfare organisations to continue and, hopefully, to expand the terrific work that they do.
I am disappointed that in trying to encourage licensees to give more money to the problem gambling organisations these provisions are potentially reducing the amount of money that goes back to the community; there is that potential. I think a better solution would be to mandate a minimum contribution to problem gambling service providers and then let individual licensees choose where the rest of their contribution goes. Nevertheless, I will be supporting the bill and I would like to recognise and acknowledge the government’s quick response to the problems that were highlighted by the gaming and racing commission report.
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Minister for the Environment, Water and Climate Change, Minister for the Arts) (12.08), in reply: As members have indicated, this bill makes a number of small but important changes to the Gaming Machine Act. Some of the proposed changes are minor, technical corrections, some clarify existing provisions, while others enhance the overall operation of the Gaming Machine Act. I will just briefly outline the main changes that have been introduced.
Firstly, and most significantly, this bill introduces an incentive scheme for gaming machine licensees to increase their contributions to problem gambling initiatives. Licensees will be able to claim $4 for every $3 spent on eligible contributions to assist problem gamblers. As I previously said when introducing the bill, this incentive scheme will encourage gaming machine licensees to take a more focused look at problem gambling issues in the territory and, hopefully, increase community contributions from clubs to services that deal with the effects of problem gambling.
The new incentive scheme provides that clubs continue to make their own decisions on their allocations to community projects or schemes. This bill preserves this important right for clubs. It also provides encouragement for licensees to increase their contributions to the area of problem gambling prevention. It will, hopefully, provide for increased industry funding to such areas as problem gambling counselling, awareness training for staff or patrons and possibly research or data collection.
Secondly, since the new Gaming Machine Act commenced in late 2004 and now that the maximum number of gaming machines allowed in the ACT has been reached, it has become clear that a number of technical matters need to be addressed. Currently the act does not provide for when the gambling and racing commission is to decide on the number of machines to be allocated to an approved applicant when there are no
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .