Page 1633 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2016
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MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (4.00): I thank Mr Smyth for bringing forward this matter of public importance today. It is an excellent opportunity to reflect on the importance of clubs in the ACT community, and there is no doubt that the clubs play an important role. Mr Smyth has touched on some of those elements, as has Mr Gentleman. They provide a social hub and they provide a place where, certainly with many of the ethnically based clubs, culture has continued for people who have come from other parts of the world. They have also been, in other cases, important sports hubs, a place where people who celebrate AFL or soccer or the various sports have come together at a central place. There is no doubt that clubs are valuable in our community.
But Mr Smyth’s topic is actually the importance of the community gaming model. And that is an interesting distinction that is worth reflecting on, because that is the very dilemma that is raised by the role of clubs in our community. There is a romantic image of clubs in our town, and it is all the things that Mr Smyth talked about and it is all the things that appear in advertising campaigns. But that romantic image is built on the grim reality of an overwhelming reliance on nearly 5,000 poker machines in those clubs providing the revenue that they largely sustain themselves on. And that is the very challenging dilemma that we as a community need to be honest enough to have a discussion about: what is the future of clubs under that model?
That, as members of the Assembly will be aware, is what the public accounts committee held an inquiry into, with the report arriving in the Assembly last October. The inquiry covered a lot of ground that this debate will undoubtedly cover again today. Certainly recommendation No 1 in the report was for the Assembly to formally acknowledge the role that ACT clubs play and the contribution they make to the wellbeing of the people of the ACT. And I think that has been reasonably well canvassed in this afternoon’s discussion.
Certainly the inquiry received dozens of pro forma submissions from sporting clubs and community groups singing the praises of support they receive from various clubs. And that is certainly something important to mention in this debate, the fact that a central role of community clubs is to support the development of the community or raise the standard of living of the community. There is no doubt that many people involved in clubs in the ACT do see that as an important function of the clubs, and they have done that, and we can all come in here and cite the many generous donations that we have seen over the years from the clubs, the events we have attended that have supported charity organisations. Just last Friday night I was at the Karinya ball at the Southern Cross Club in Woden. I know that the Southern Cross Club has supported that charity for many years, and they are very grateful for it.
We know that clubs are also, of course, required by law to make community contributions at a minimum rate of eight per cent of net gaming machine revenue. The most recent report from the Gambling and Racing Commission detailing clubs’ community contributions during the 2014-15 financial year shows that clubs in fact made 12.62 per cent of net gaming machine revenue as contributions. Again, for a long time it has been well above the minimum legislated requirements, and those, of course, are welcome contributions. But it is quite an explicit relationship that a percentage of money put into pokies will end up supporting the local football team or the choir or the community service provider.
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