Andrew Braddock’s speech was scathing of Labor and poker machines. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has described a Greens motion (supported by the Liberals) in the Legislative Assembly calling on his party to cut ties with the Canberra Labor Club as provocative and defamatory.
“Here in the ACT, the Labor Party doesn’t simply get lobbied by the gambling industry. They are themselves a part of it,” Greens MLA Andrew Braddock told the Assembly on Tuesday (3 September).
“The Labor Club was originally set up for the express purpose of supporting the Labor Party, including financially. For decades, a slice of the club’s gambling profits would be used to fund the Labor Party … Labor are trust fund children, benefiting from the profits from gambling harm.”
Mr Braddock put forward a motion calling on ACT Labor to sever all of its connections to the Canberra Labor Club to eliminate its conflict of interest and donate $6,100,000 to an anti-gambling charity, an amount he says is equivalent to the investment returns the party receives from the club.
Chief Minister Barr announced his party would not support this.
“The motion… [is] provocative, defamatory and unreasonable, and not the sort of contribution that lends itself to form a consensus on gaming reform,” he said.
The motion was nevertheless passed with the support of the Canberra Liberals, although motions are symbolic in nature and do not change laws – the ACT Government is not required to enact it.
The Canberra Labor Club has four venues across the capital, with a total of 436 poker machines. According to its most recent annual report, these venues made over $18 million in revenue from their pokies in 2022. This report also stated that one of the club’s objectives is to “promote and support the Australian Labor Party”.
“It’s … worth remembering that while the tap has been turned off on the flow of money between club and party for the time being, there isn’t anything stopping it from being turned on again. There is nothing stopping the transfer of assets from other undertakings, like their new property development or hotel enterprises, from flowing across, all made possible by the liquidity provided by poker machines,” Mr Braddock.
ACT Labor and the Greens did, however, agree to the establishment of an independent inquiry to assist in advising the government on the steps necessary to develop and implement a club industry revenue, activity and worker transition plan.
This was welcomed by ClubsACT CEO Craig Shannon.
“The agreement by all three major parties to the establishment of an independent inquiry on the ACT Club industry and their social and economic role in the ACT is fundamentally important to achieve a sustainable industry and to allow an evidence-based approach to government policy going forward,” he said
“Canberra needs a viable club industry. Clubs are the great meeting and entertainment spaces for the ACT community. Policy outcomes that ignore the economic and social role of our industry only hurt Canberrans across the board.
“If clubs become unsustainable, the economic impact will flow through to the sports and community organisations funded and supported by ClubsACT members. This may leave government and taxpayers to pick up a sizeable cost.”
Loading ...
