Page 4653 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 31 October 2017
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Canberrans and addressing a number of issues, it should be noted that for a lot of Canberrans it is not getting better across Mr Ramsay’s portfolios.
Mr Ramsay talks about problem gambling with a sort of moral tone to his voice. It is worth reminding members that the Labor Party and the Labor Party-aligned CFMEU, between them, own about 1,000 poker machines; that is, 1,000 poker machines that fund Mr Ramsay, that fund Mr Gentleman, that fund Ms Cheyne, and that have in the past—$50,000—funded Mr Rattenbury.
For Mr Ramsay to get up in this place and talk about the effects of problem gambling with this moral tone in his voice, when he and his colleagues are the beneficiaries of millions—in fact, tens of millions—of dollars of money through the profits of poker machines, is hypocrisy writ large.
In fact, outside tin pot African dictatorships, you would not find a circumstance where the government of the day owned, operated and regulated gambling assets to the extent that this mob do. For Mr Ramsay to get up in this place and talk to us, to lecture us, about the great benefits of what he is doing for problem gamblers, whilst at the same time he and his colleagues are pocketing tens of millions of dollars through the proceeds of pokie money, is an outrage.
We in this place will not be lectured. Equally, the community will look at the hypocrisy of those opposite when they talk about these issues, and of the Greens, who took their $50,000 from the pokie-funded CFMEU.
While talking about ensuring this city keeps getting better for all Canberrans, we must ask: is it getting better for the owners, the operators, the members of the greyhound owners community? Is it getting better for all Canberrans he talked about? I do not think so.
Is it getting better for the ClubsACT members, with whom this vindictive, spiteful government will no longer meet? Or do we again see a vindictive, spiteful measure from this government attacking one section of the industry that happens not to be aligned with their Labor Party clubs, the CFMEU clubs. No, they are going to attack the other part of the industry that they do not directly profit from. They get money into their pockets from the Labor Party clubs, from the CFMEU clubs. This is a government that will not engage with a section of the industry that represents those other clubs.
Let us then look at whether it is getting better for all of our community. Let us look at some recent headlines: “War zone” from the Canberra Times; “Suburban Violence” from the Canberra Times last week. Some headlines go back to March. Since this Attorney-General has been elected he has refused to bring in anti-consorting laws. “Front lawns set alight at a house next door to a childcare centre”—is life getting better for them? “Three cars torched and fired in Kambah” in July 2017. Is it getting better for those residents in Kambah?
Another headline from July: “Cars, house shot at with high powered rifle in Waramanga”. Is it getting better for those people in that street in Waramanga?
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