Page 4864 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 27 November 2018
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essentially one in eight people. This is a real and significant issue and the vast majority of this harm comes from poker machines. Whilst we still have some way to go, this legislation is an important step towards reducing the saturation of poker machines across the ACT and minimising the harm that comes from them.
I do encourage all clubs to continue to engage with Mr Stevens in the lead-up to the voluntary and compulsory surrender deadlines so that this process can be as smooth as possible. And I will take this opportunity to once again, on that point, reiterate my desire to see clubs continue to operate in this territory. I have said many times on the public record that our beef is not with clubs. Our beef is the fact they have built a business model that relies on the excessive use of poker machines that has the impacts in our community that I have just described.
One of the more extraordinary things in today’s debate, and frankly that I have heard for a while in the Assembly, was Mr Parton standing up earlier this afternoon and boasting that he had told people in clubs that I fantasised about the closure of clubs. He went on to regale them with the other things I apparently hold a view on. It is not true. If Mr Parton were to take the time to research the public record he would know that I have stated time and again that we want to see clubs in our community. We see clubs as important social venues. We recognise the role that they can play in our community but we also recognise the harm they can inflict in our community with their current business model.
The fact that Mr Parton is willing to go out in the community and wilfully misrepresent my position on these matters demonstrates an extraordinary lack of integrity that Mr Parton brings to politics. He cannot just go out and claim that somebody else says something that they have never actually said. We can have political contests. We can have differences of view. But this is not a joke. This is not a bit of buffoonery on radio. These are real issues being debated here in our community. I invite Mr Parton to reflect on his personal conduct because I think conducting himself in the way he described today in the chamber—it is not me presenting what he did; it is him boasting about what he did—does no credit to ACT politics.
The ACT Greens are very pleased to offer our support for this bill today. We believe it will make an important difference for our community and we think that is a discussion that will need to keep going because this is an evolving space. But I think that what is being put forward here is a sensible pathway for our clubs in our community to start to play a different role to what they have played over the last decade or so as the cash has been poured into the poker machines and has distorted their view of their financial model.
MR MILLIGAN (Yerrabi) (3.55): I rise today as it is important to speak as the shadow minister for sport and rec on the proposed changes to community contributions. I am appalled at the lack of transparency the government has shown in relation to this issue and their blind ambition to dismantle clubs and build their own empire by bolstering the Chief Minister’s own charitable fund. If you went out to any of the community clubs on any given day and talked to the patrons, the staff and the community groups that they support, you would abandon your attack on these Canberra institutions.
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