Most of us would by now have seen clips of poor old Joe Biden making a fool of himself in the US presidential debate. It’s time to put him out to pasture and find another Democrat to run. In my view, not to do so is elder abuse.
On a local note, many older Canberrans I know rely on their local licensed club/s for cheap meals, entertainment, and socialisation. For my old mate Fay of Curtin (a lively gregarious lady), a trip to the Raiders club at Mawson for a $12 meal is the highlight of her week: she can eat a good, cheap meal and catch up with friends. It’s the same for many of our oldies. It’s alright for the inner-city élite Greens and yuppies who can afford to eat at trendy eateries in Braddon, O’Connor, and Lyneham; but out in the suburbs, elderly Canberrans on pensions and/or low super often have to watch every dollar they spend.
I was therefore pleased to see local clubs CEO Craig Shannon slam the ACT Government for its continued attempts to make it harder for clubs to survive in the ACT, in particular by continuing to force them to decrease the number of poker machines. This is urged on by the Greens, who seem to want to destroy anything that brings enjoyment to ordinary people, and instead promote issues that do little to help the community, and that often cause harm instead.
The following stats make for interesting reading. More than 1,100 community groups are supported by clubs in the ACT. There are more than 505,000 members of clubs in Canberra. (I belong to about six.) Clubs employ more than 1,800 Canberrans (including more than 60 Year 12 school leavers). Clubs maintain at their own expense more than 400 hectares of green space for sporting use, and more than $500 million of sporting facilities and assets are under club management. Clubs in the ACT contribute more than they are required to for the community contribution fund (minimum of 8.85 per cent of gaming revenue), because they were established to support the community, and sport especially. Our clubs have the lowest prevalence of problem gambling in the country (0.4 per cent compared with 0.8 per cent in NSW and 1.0 per cent in Victoria). In all, 45 clubs provide hospitality and entertainment services in the ACT.
Over the last decade or so, more than 60 per cent of the clubs’ contribution to community development has been to sport. Grassroots sport could not survive without it. Thousands of children would not have the opportunity to play sports if our clubs folded. Clubs maintain six golf courses, 20 bowling greens, five football fields, a yacht club, a basketball stadium, a BMX track, and many gymnasiums, plus a $19 million health and wellness building (Southern Cross Club).
In 2000, there were about 5,200 poker machines in our clubs. This has been run down to about 3,500, but any overzealous attempts to reduce this further by the ACT Government would be totally counterproductive. These days, there are more issues with online gambling than with pokies. The ACT Government needs to stop hammering clubs and let them get on with their great work in supporting our community.
