Legislative Assembly

3868 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY Wednesday 15 October 2003 ______ Mr Speaker (The Hon. John Joseph Aquilina) took the chair at 10.00 a.m. Mr Speaker offered the Prayer. GAMING MACHINES AMENDMENT (MISCELLANEOUS) BILL Second Reading Debate resumed from 19 September. Mr GEORGE SOURIS (Upper Hunter) [10.00 a.m.]: I state at the outset that the Opposition will not oppose the Gaming Machines Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill. The bill proposes a large number of important amendments which are intended to overcome anomalies in the existing Act and makes some adjustments which are essentially agreed among the industry, the Government and the Opposition as necessary for the better management of the Act. The bill provides for revised arrangements for forfeiture and transfer of gaming machines, as that applies to large clubs particularly, and also brings large clubs into line with the rest of the industry. The bill also provides a new and welcome amendment to overcome an anomaly that was exposed by the club at Taree and the application of the new 50 kilometres limit within which a club is permitted to conduct only a class one social impact assessment. The other provisions of the bill relate to relatively minor though important issues. I do not propose to discuss each of those 16 items because the Minister gave an explanation in his second reading speech and I have had the benefit of briefings from the director-general of the department and members of the Minister's personal staff. I express my thanks for the briefings I have received. In many respects those briefings have assisted me to understand a large number of small amendments that would otherwise have taken considerable time to discuss. It is interesting that the Government appears to be assisting the industry by the introduction of this bill. Nonetheless, the Minister, his colleagues and various other members of this Parliament are doing nothing other than ring the death knell of clubs as we know them in New South Wales. This Government seems to have formed the adamant intention of imposing a very substantial increase in gaming machine taxes which will result in many clubs becoming non-viable or being unable to continue to assist the community in the way they have done in previous years. A week or so ago a large public rally was held at Governor Macquarie Tower and was attended by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Brogden, me, and other members of the Coalition. It was noticeable that no Government members took the opportunity to walk with their clubs to visibly and publicly express their support. The Coalition has received many reports of Government members saying privately what seems to be the right thing to their clubs and to members of local communities, but when it comes to putting their money where their mouth is and publicly standing alongside their clubs in this great struggle, not one of them will take the opportunity to attend. It should be obvious to the more experienced members of this House that this is a very localised, grassroots community issue involving many members of the community. The membership statistics of licensed clubs in New South Wales are well known. This issue is intensifying, not fading, and as the tax bites harder and harder year after year, community anger and discontent with this Government will only increase. The approach of the Government to the imposition of this tax has been nothing but shameful. There has been no consultation; instead, there was just a dictatorial pronouncement on the day before the budget was delivered. The magnitude of the tax is so great that many club members and many local community members have been left gasping. They wonder what this Labor Government thinks it is doing to battling communities in country and metropolitan areas that rely very heavily on clubs. In country areas, many events such as weddings, conferences and small committee meetings of sporting organisations are held at the local club because no other venue exists. All meetings of community organisations are accommodated by the licensed clubs in this State. One wonders what this Government thinks it is doing and why this Government is targeting clubs in a way that can only hurt the very people that the club industry is trying to assist. Senior citizens and pensioners will be very 15 October 2003 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 3869 hard hit because licensed clubs provide affordable food and beverages as well as entertainment and recreational facilities. The effect of the tax will be that money will be taken out of the pockets of pensioners and senior citizens and out of the balance sheets of many community organisations and sporting clubs. The tax will also take money from local people and give it to consolidated revenue. The Coalition does not buy the very obvious budget afterthought and nonsense that has been peddled by the Premier that the tax revenue will be allocated to health expenditure. The only way that the hypothecation can be truly accepted and trusted is sure knowledge, for a large number of years ahead, of what the Health budget would have been without the tax, and therefore the level of enhancement the tax is now purported to provide. The tax increase was very much an afterthought after the budget had been delivered. None of it was included in the Treasurer's Budget Speech, and none of it is included in the forward estimates. It was very much an afterthought by the Premier, a couple of months later. Indeed, I believe it is a bit of a scandal that a brochure that is so blatant, misleading and political has been produced and peddled out to the community to justify the tax increase, on the basis of an afterthought that this money will be ascribed to the Health budget. No-one can tell whether a future tax raised from gaming will have increased the Health budget beyond what it otherwise would have been. No matter what happens, the budget allocation for Health will increase each year, simply because of increases in wages. The budget allocation for the Health portfolio, which has a large number of employees, as does Education, will increase by more than the increase in poker machine taxes. Therefore the Government will be able to say, "See, we have put all that money into the budget." But the reality of it—and the reality of hypothecation generally—is that, in essence, that masks a reduction in other areas or in general consolidated support for the Health budget. It does not mean that the budget allocation for Health will be more than it would have been otherwise; it simply means that there will be an attempt by the Government to claim, falsely, that the budget increase—which would have occurred in any event—was afforded by the increase in gaming machine taxes. It is simply nonsense, and absolutely no-one is buying it. Indeed, no-one involved in Treasury matters with any pride would buy that sort of nonsense. We know precisely what happens to so-called hypothecated revenue. How would anyone be able to prove in 10 years time that the Health budget had been enhanced by the increase in the gaming machine tax beyond what the health budget would otherwise have been? It is absolute nonsense. It is shameful that the Premier is peddling this so hard, when he knows it is a false premise. He knows that he is peddling fake information and it is designed to con the people of New South Wales into supporting this iniquitous tax. This issue will not go away; it will simply increase more and more. Recently a large meeting took place at South Sydney Juniors Rugby League Club. This weekend in Albury during the Clubs New South Wales annual conference there will be a large demonstration against the Government's decision, and in a few weeks time the rugby league clubs will also express discontent at their annual conference at Tweed Heads. Labor members of this House who intend to simply accept this and allow the Premier and the Treasurer to throw this sort of venom at the clubs and the club movement are simply doing their communities and themselves a disservice. Labor members ought to be ashamed of themselves for going through the charade of 34 of them voting against the Premier in a caucus meeting but then, the very same day, when presented with an identical motion put in this Parliament, all 34 of them, shamefully, voted against that motion. Only hours beforehand they put on a great show for everyone in the caucus room when they voted for the very same motion. The vote counts only when it happens in this Chamber; it does not count when it is done behind closed doors. If Labor members think the club movement has bought that little bit of a stunt, they are greatly mistaken. This week all Labor members received documents from the clubs. Did they notice the pictures? Did they notice the anger in people's faces at the rally? They should take note. Labor members are being given plenty of opportunities—indeed, they are being given quite a lot of rope and lifeline by the clubs—to reverse this dreadful decision. They should not let the opportunity pass, because ultimately it will be the death of this Labor Government. The community anger is so great, and the issue is growing so much that it is a vote changer; it is a threat to government. A government of this nature, which has now displayed so much arrogance and disinterest in the welfare of the community it purports to represent, is a government that is on its last legs.

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