Page 1827 - Week 05 - Thursday, 16 May 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
places to gamble; they are not just hospitality businesses with concessions. Our clubs are there to serve their members, their workers and the broader communities. They have the privilege of operating gaming machines because of their role in the community.
Many of our clubs already recognise that reliance on poker machine revenue is not sustainable and they welcome the government’s support to diversify their business models away from that reliance. Our latest initiative is a diversification support fund which will provide training, business planning and other crucial support to help clubs remain strong and move away from a reliance on gaming machines.
We have delivered a tax rebate and a grant for small and medium clubs to help support that diversification. Clubs are already using this money to help redevelop their community facilities and to invest in things like solar panels that will reduce their ongoing costs.
We have also delivered a pathway to reach 4,000 gaming machine authorisations in the territory by 2020. I am pleased that every single club with 20 or more authorisations took up the government’s incentives to reduce their numbers and that there are now just 4,003 authorisations in the ACT. We will reach our commitment to reduce the number of poker machine authorisations and we are doing it in a way that supports our local clubs.
MR PETTERSSON: Minister, can you tell the Assembly more about the how the government engages with clubs to support them?
MR RAMSAY: I thank Mr Pettersson for the supplementary question. Just as our policy commitments have been clear and public, the process of meeting those commitments has been fully transparent. Our approach has been one of direct engagement with the clubs. That engagement has been overwhelmingly positive. Every club had an opportunity to make a submission and to contribute to the way that we have met our community’s clear demand for fewer machines and stronger harm minimisation rules.
We appointed Neville Stevens AO to engage across the industry and to listen to clubs. The clubs industry diversification analysis that he provided to government has been published, as has the government’s response. The reasons for the government’s decisions on the support available to clubs are available to everyone.
It was no mere coincidence that every single club with 20 or more gaming machines took up the government’s incentives. Clubs were genuinely consulted and the package of incentives was designed to support their efforts to diversify away from gaming machine revenue as a source of income. Throughout the process, they had available the advice and assistance of a person who was independent from government.
Our positive working relationship with clubs shows that we can strengthen our clubs, that we can enhance their ability to serve their members and communities and that we can do it all while delivering even stronger harm minimisation rules.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video