The final sitting week of the ACT Legislative Assembly’s current term begins – and the Greens and the Liberals have Labor in their sights.
Greens: ACT Labor’s gambling ‘conflict of interest’
ACT Greens MLA Andrew Braddock has called on ACT Labor to sever its connections to the Canberra Labor Club, arguing there is a conflict of interest with its gambling policy, as the club and its poker machines fund the party.
Mr Braddock states that the purpose of the Canberra Labor Club group is to promote the Australian Labor party. It operates 436 poker machines in its four clubs, accounting for 12 per cent of all pokies in the ACT. The club has received ACT Government grants to diversify from poker machines; according to Mr Braddock, it has used this money to build apartments and a hotel, but still operates the same number of poker machines as in 2012.
Labor nominates most of the Club’s board of directors, Mr Braddock states. Historically, profits from poker machines at the Canberra Labor Club funded the ACT Labor Party; while $6.1 million from the club was used to set up the 1973 Foundation, which has provided more than $4.4 million to the party since 2011–12.
“This conflict of interest results in the ACT Labor Party being impossibly compromised on gambling policy,” Mr Braddock said.
Gaming minister and ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury last week accused ACT Labor of blocking gambling reforms, saying that he presented a “best-practice, costed, and expert-endorsed proposal” to apply mandatory cashless gambling and mandatory precommitment with default loss limits and time limits across all ACT pokies, linked by a central monitoring system (CMS).
The Canberra Liberals and the ACT Greens voted together to support the motion for Labor to sever its ties from the Canberra Labor Club and to donate funds equivalent to those derived from gambling to the Alliance for Gambling Reform. They also called for an independent inquiry into the ACT club industry to examine potential changes to regulations, support for diversification, harm minimization initiatives, and the economic impact of clubs.
In a joint statement, Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Mr Rattenbury said that although Labor and the Greens “haven’t been able to reach agreement on key measures”, they had agreed to reduce the number of gaming machines to 3,500 and limit their operating hours to 10:00am to 2:00am.
Mr Barr said he viewed this as a step toward further reforms, while Mr Rattenbury said turning off poker machines between 2am and 10am would reduce harm.
Mr Braddock said the Greens would continue to stand with gambling harm minimisation advocates and push for the implementation of best-practice reforms.
Peter Strong, Strong Independents candidate for Kurrajong, called for ACT Labor and the ACT Greens to remove poker machines from the Labor Club and the Tradies, which, he alleged, are affiliated with and fund Labor and the Greens respectively.
Mr Strong criticised the debate between Labor and the Greens as hypocritical, accusing both parties of clinging to poker machine revenue while claiming moral superiority. He argued that these funds compromise the parties’ values.
“This is an offensive war between the parties about possessing the moral high ground,” Mr Strong said. “Neither deserve to be in that place. The chances of the clubs removing their machines is pretty much zero, as the parties need the money, and are happy to sell their green and working-class souls to get that money. Yet it should be remembered that the money they receive are the losses made by the workers of the ACT.”
Mr Strong suggested that if the political clubs divested from poker machines, it would reduce the number of outlets and make it easier to support gambling addicts.
“Can the major parties set the example we all need? If they had gumption, there would be less poker machines in our City – a good thing. They don’t have gumption – just vested interests.”
Canberra Liberals: High petrol prices are Labor’s fault
Canberra Liberals leader Elizabeth Lee claims that the ACT Government has failed to establish a fuel price watchdog, despite announcing one in February 2020, or to task the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission with monitoring, reporting, and analysing the ACT fuel market.
As a result, Ms Lee says, the ACT has the highest retail petrol price of all capital cities.
The most recent Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report on the Australian petrol market (March 2024) showed that Canberra had the highest average quarterly retail petrol price of the eight capital cities (202 cpl), and monthly average retail petrol prices were higher in Canberra in all months in the year to March 2024.
Likewise, Ms Lee says, according to the FuelPrice Australia website, Canberra’s retail petrol price, over the last week, was the highest out of all the capital cities in Australia; and petrol prices in Canberra are, on average, 13 cents per litre higher than in Queanbeyan.
Latest data from FuelPrice Australia shows that the ACT has the highest fuel prices for unleaded petrol of any state or territory. However, unleaded petrol costs less in Canberra than in Sydney, Brisbane, or Adelaide.
“Every time Canberrans fill up at the petrol station, as the costs tick over more than other jurisdictions including Queanbeyan, they can thank Mr Barr who has done nothing,” Ms Lee said.
Ms Lee’s motion was negated. Mr Barr said that Canberra’s petrol prices have historically been higher than in larger capital cities, and that the ACT Government had sought to address this issue by Chief Ministerial interventions and the introduction of the FuelCheck scheme. His amendment called for the continued operation of the FuelCheck scheme and for the government to keep monitoring petrol prices to prevent retailers from reinstating high retail margins.
Canberra Liberals: Labor must split from CFMEU
Elizabeth Lee will call on ACT Labor to suspend the ACT branch of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) from ACT Labor.
Last month, the Federal Government placed all branches of the CFMEU – including the ACT branch – into administration following allegations of corruption and links to organised crime.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr has said that ACT Labor would not accept any donations from the CFMEU. Unlike many Labor premiers, however, Mr Barr has not suspended the party’s affiliation with the CFMEU, to which many of his MLAs have strong ties.
“The ACT Chief Minister has, to date, failed to take any action to suspend the CFMEU from ACT Labor, leaving him as the only Labor leader in the country not to take decisive action,” Ms Lee said.
Master Builders ACT has alleged that CFMEU influence on building sites can cause delays that increase the cost of construction by 30 per cent; that the union interferes in procurement; and accused the union of bullying and harassment. Likewise, the CFMEU sought power to investigate and prosecute companies in breach of the Secure Local Jobs Code and to oversee the appointment of senior public servants.
The Integrity Commission is investigating the CFMEU and Deputy Chief Minister Yvette Berry’s office for corruption over decisions to award the contract for the Campbell Primary School Modernisation project to a company favoured by the union, rather than for the preferred option.
ACT Labor: Team of certifiers
ACT Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson will call on the ACT Government to establish an expert team of publicly funded building certifiers within the ACT Public Service.
This was an ACT Labor election commitment in 2020.
ACT Greens: Develop race course
ACT Greens planning spokeswoman Jo Clay urges the government to consider public housing and community facilities for the Thoroughbred Park site, the Lyneham racecourse, rather than simply approving the Canberra Racing Club’s application for a Territory Plan Major Plan Amendment.
The Canberra Racing Club has applied to change zoning for underused land at Thoroughbred Park for commercial, commercial accommodation and residential uses, including more than 3000 dwellings.
The ACT Greens intend to turn Thoroughbred Park into a new residential suburb inhabited by 10,000 people – a move opposed by the racing industry and the Canberra Business Chamber, as well as by ACT Labor and the Canberra Liberals.
Ms Clay said a steering committee of public servants and horseracing industry officials that Mr Barr set up to consider the Canberra Racing Club’s proposal was not considering other options for the site. She alleges that developing Thoroughbred Park for profit would represent a significant windfall gain for the club, while the government has given the increasingly unpopular horseracing industry more than $100 million.
Labor and the Liberals voted against Ms Clay’s amendment to phase out the $41 million subsidy to the horse racing industry – for the third time, the Greens MLA noted.
“Currently, the horseracing industry receives more public money than the Canberra Raiders, ACT Brumbies, Canberra United and all community sports programs combined,” Ms Clay said. “What’s more, they get this money outside of any grant process or public tender. I don’t think anyone in the community would think this is a good or fair use of taxpayer dollars.”
Canberra Liberals: How much will infrastructure cost?
Elizabeth Lee will call on the government to provide cost estimates for light rail stage 2B, a new convention centre, Canberra Pavilion, and Canberra Theatre Expansion.
Ms Lee states that despite spending millions of taxpayers’ money on feasibility studies into these projects, the government has refused to provide estimates for the cost of these infrastructure projects.
Reasoning from last week’s revelation that the cost of a stadium in Civic had increased by 400 per cent, Ms Lee estimates that the minimum cost of these projects might have increased from $4.85 billion to $19.4 billion. Ms Lee alleges that Mr Barr has already cut projects in healthy and housing to prioritise construction of the light rail.
