Page 1668 - Week 05 - Thursday, 11 May 2017

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This motion, I believe, has nothing to do with Mr Rattenbury’s capacity to get a decision through cabinet. It is more to do with him having a shot at our community clubs. Mr Rattenbury has been on a club-bashing crusade now for some time. What we have here is another poorly chosen opportunity for him to have another cheap shot at one of the community’s most precious resources, namely, our community clubs.

I move the amendment circulated in my name:

Omit all words after “That this Assembly”, substitute:

“(1) notes:

(a) the invaluable contribution clubs make to Canberra’s social fabric in terms of sporting, recreation, leisure and meeting facilities and activities that bring our community together;

(b) that our clubs employ almost 1800 people and support some 1100 community groups;

(c) over the past two decades, our clubs have spent hundreds of millions on sporting teams and infrastructure, community donations and community functions; and

(d) our clubs spend more than one million per annum on live music and maintain more than 400 hectares of green space;

(2) further notes:

(a) the assistance that clubs provide for problem gambling and the contributions they make to the Problem Gambling Assistance Fund;

(b) the problem gambling level in Canberra has been declining and is currently the lowest problem gambling jurisdiction in the nation;

(c) clubs recognise that various social and market conditions result in the need to diversify;

(d) the need to reduce barriers that deter diversification of club activities and functions; and

(e) the paramount importance of the community’s entitlement to freedom of discretion to participate in legally sanctioned activities free of interference based on extreme ideology and a desire to dictate an individual’s reasonable choices; and

(3) calls on Government to:

(a) acknowledge the invaluable contribution clubs make to our community;

(b) acknowledge the measures clubs have taken recently to restrict EFTPOS transaction limits;

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