GAMING CONTROL AMENDMENT (COMMUNITY INTEREST) BILL 2016 (No. 65)
Second Reading
[12.40 p.m.] Ms FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, I will make a brief contribution and I will speak further in the Committee stage.
To give members the heads up, the amendment has to be redrafted slightly to properly reflect my request to have retrospective nature removed from this bill.
I have an abhorrence of poker machines. I have never used one and I never intend to. I feel sad for families who are negatively impacted by poker machines. We see them everywhere. It is a shame we have them in Tasmania at all, but we are not here to debate that. We already have 3550 in place. We are talking about 20 in a new application and another 110. It is not very many, compared to the 3550 in place. That is not the focus of this legislation either, but it gives context to this debate.
I support the implementation of the community interest test. We should have had it from the start. I am not sure about the process in renewal of licences. Maybe the Leader can indicate the process around licence renewal for poker machines. Do they come up for renewal, and how often do they come up? The time we should be imposing our community test is before they are renewed.
[12.33 p.m.] Mrs ARMITAGE (Launceston) (by leave) - Mr President, in accordance with the provisions of standing order 32(3) I move -
That the Council does now adjourn for the purpose of discussing a matter of public importance, namely:
The current crisis in the Launceston General Hospital emergency department and the public concerns surrounding it.
Mr PRESIDENT - In accordance with the Standing Orders, are there three members prepared to rise in support of the proposed motion? That being the case, I again refer all members to what was stated at the commencement of the morning, that the duration of the debate shall not exceed two-and-a-half hours. There is no right of reply and at the conclusion of the debate the member for Launceston will seek leave to withdraw the motion.
Ms FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, I am using this opportunity on adjournment to make some comments I wished to make this morning during the joint sitting, but was not given the call to do so.
Mr President, as we know, casual vacancies in the Senate are filled in accordance with section 15 of the Constitution by a meeting of the state legislature, both Houses, or only one in the case of Queensland. Prior to 1975 the convention was to appoint members of the same party. This convention was broken twice in 1975. A successful referendum in 1977 led to a constitutional change enshrining the convention requiring the nominee to be a member of the same party.
Ms FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, I want to make a brief contribution and pose a question to the Government. A constituent of mine over the last two to three months has had a total of over 100 head of sheep shot on nine separate occasions. These sheep have been shot by a person or persons who are very capable shooters as the sheep have almost all, if not all, been shot through the neck and left in the paddock to die. These shootings have occurred on my constituent's farm where he and his wife and four children live. This is a very distressing time for him and the family and to this time the farmer has chosen not to inform the younger children so as to try to avoid undue stress.
[3.00 p.m.] Ms FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, we get an opportunity a couple of times a year in this place to deliver what has often been titled a 'grievance debate', where we have the opportunity to raise pretty much any matter or issue or area of interest to us as members, or our electorate, and this is one of those times.
