ALP selling up the Labor Club

areaman said :

Don’t forget the ALP will still be getting a lot of money from the CFMEU who get all their money from the Tradies.

Not from the bistro, they’d be broke if they were.

This whole issue smells a bit fake to me. they are flogging off the entire Labor Club machine because of some ill-defined problem with, poker machines? Why not just throw out the poker machines if they’re so concerned about that?

I’ll be waiting to see what the real reason is.

It’s all done behind closed doors. Supposed to be separate, but not, and that’s why there have been concerns about the relationship for many years. I believe not everyone in the ALP is happy about it, including long-time board members…

After reading the article on 666 I’m confused about who actually made the decision the board or the ALP.

The board says:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/25/2579574.htm

“The board of the Canberra Labor Club says it is selling off the chain because its links with the ALP have made it increasingly difficult to expand the business.”

But “Mr Redpath [Bill Redpath ALP Branch Secretary] says criticism of the party’s reliance on poker machine revenue is one of the main reasons for the sale.”

I know that the board is made up of ALP members but aren’t they supposed to be separate entities? Who decided to sell it and for exactly which reason?

This story seems to have spun in two different directions.

Don’t forget the ALP will still be getting a lot of money from the CFMEU who get all their money from the Tradies.

I am concerned about the potential loss of community space, similar to what happened when the city labor club moved.

So what will happen? The ALP will get a HUGE windfall from the sale of the clubs, ready for the next election (2010 Federal and 2112 local).

The conflict of interest standing between the ALP and banning of poker machines will be no more, and so they might actually start to do it. There’s some political points scored without affecting the bottom line of the Labor machine.

What a load of cobblers: no-one is worried about people putting “a few dollars” through the poker machines.

If people were only putting “a few dollars” into poker machines, would clubs be the staggeringly cashed-up behemoths that they are today?

ACT Labor President, from the article:

“Fifteen years ago people thought going to the club and putting a few dollars through the poker machines was fun,” he said.

“Now we have a different attitude and we have to be mindful of that different community attitude and as to whether that’s now a concern to Labor voters, to the community generally.”

15 years ago playing the pokies was still considered fine? My arse it was. 20 years ago you had people complaining about it. The issue is only making the headlines for Labor now because they’re making revenue, as opposed to being close to insolvent as they once were.

It’s been in the past 15 years that the club has received favourable bank loans and benefitted from an increased number of legally permitted pokies. Not to mention ACT Labor government decisions beneficially affecting their club’s assets.