Page 3746 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 26 August 2009
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MS GALLAGHER: Go back and have a look, Mr Smyth. You obviously do not read everything as closely as you would have us all believe. I move:
Omit all words after paragraph (1)(a).
Essentially, briefly talking to the amendment, it deletes all words after paragraph 1(a), which notes that the concerns raised have been referred to the Gambling and Racing Commission. Let us let them do their job. That is what the Assembly established them to do under the relevant legislation. Everyone supported that legislation and was fully behind it until the process of the Canberra Labor Club Group sale commenced. Now, surprise, surprise, the Liberals do not support that and they are attacking the independence of this commission. The commission should be allowed to do its job. The Assembly has passed a motion supporting that already and this merely confirms the will of the Assembly as outlined last week.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (5.34): The Greens will not be supporting this motion. We will be supporting the government amendment, as we believe the motion will make no further contribution to the concerns raised by the Assembly last week with regard to the proposed sale of the Canberra Labor clubs.
The Assembly passed a motion last week expressing its concern with allegations raised in the Canberra Times and the Australian newspapers. This motion called upon the Gambling and Racing Commission to investigate a possible breach of the Gaming Machine Act 2004 in relation to the proposed sale of assets by Canberra Labor Club Ltd. The motion also called upon the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission to have tabled in the Assembly the full findings of an investigation into the claims, should an investigation be pursued and completed; and, lastly, that the Gambling and Racing Commission provide to the Assembly reasons why it may decide it does not have sufficient grounds to conduct an investigation into the claims if it finds that to be so.
The Greens are seeking a full investigation and a full and frank disclosure under the current legal arrangements which provide for investigation of these matters by the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission. The Treasurer has assured the Assembly that these matters are being investigated by the commission and the Greens believe that we must allow this process to be completed. The claims are very serious and there are many questions yet to be answered and resolved. However, a process has been initiated, and the Greens will be looking for a timely report from the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (5.36): I assume this is the conclusion of the debate. If something happens in this place, Minister Gallagher simply says, “It is cheap politics.” But we did not raise the issue of corruption. We did not raise the issue of murkiness. The president of the Labor club did that in a very public way by writing letters to at least three ministers and discussing the issues in the Canberra Times. So it is very hard to accuse us of cheap politics when we did not raise these particular concerns.
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