weekly hansard - Queensland Parliament - Queensland Government

2610 Racing Venues Development Amendment Bill 23 Aug 2005
consultation with all the other events. This is not the tail wagging the dog; this is about cooperation.
Those trustees know what their job is.
I hear what the honourable member is saying. It has been suggested to me before by people from
the Gold Coast Harness Racing Club and so on that they think the big dog is eating the little dog. I do
not see that. Those trustees are set up there for a very good reason. Back in the old days when that was
set up—and I am not going to go there—those trustees were appointed to ensure that harness and dog
racing remained viable. Perhaps if a few National Party people took a leaf out of the book of the Labor
Party and sponsored a few race meetings we might have a few more of them down there.
Mr HOPPER: I table the explanatory notes.
Mr HOBBS: I note that the minister recognises there is an issue here, and I think there is, too.
Unless there are some safeguards inserted into this legislation, this particular race club at the Gold
Coast could have a vast majority of its income—it has a majority now—such as 90 per cent of its income
coming from other sources.
We think that there needs to be some sort of checks and balances. A while ago the minister
acknowledged the fact that, yes, there could be a bit of an issue, and he thought there were some
mechanisms there. Can the minister explain again quite clearly what he thinks the safeguards are to
stop a major racing event being overshadowed by some other non-racing function?
Mr SCHWARTEN: I am only going to explain this once. Let us take the Robert Poole harness
race last week sponsored by the Australian Labor Party on the Gold Coast, as an example. Let us say
that the trustees decided that they did not want the Labor Party to have a race meeting last week. Let us
suggest that the harness racing people on the Gold Coast supported it but the trustees did not; the
trustees were all members of the National Party and did not want it happen. I know that would never
happen, but let us just use that—
An opposition member interjected.
Mr SCHWARTEN: This is the sort of scenario that the member opposite is talking about where
the trustees act improperly. The first thing that would happen is that Robert Poole’s branch of the Labor
Party, who sponsored this race, would complain to the Harness Racing Board. The very next thing that
would happen is that the Harness Racing Board would complain to me and those trustees would be out
of a job. That is the first thing that would happen because they are acting contrary to what the
established legislation has them doing, and that is to look after racing. The other point is that if the
trustees want to change some other event or get rid of racing on the Gold Coast, then they are going to
do that in only one way, and that is to go through the Governor in Council. They are the safeguards.
They are no different to any other trustees. Trustees are put there because they are trusted. To hogtie
them and suggest that this is tied up and tie up that and tie up the rest of it defeats the purpose of having
trustees.
I know the member opposite has no faith in trustees. The member really is sailing close to the
breeze, as far as I am concerned, in attacking the character of those people who have been appointed.
However, the reality is that the safeguard is in the government of the day appointing the people who are
there. If the member does not have faith in his own ministers if they were there to appoint trustees, then
that is his doing, but I have faith in the trustees that we have at the moment.
Mr HOPPER: In the minister’s statement just then he said that we might be attacking the
character of the trustees. In no way at all are we doing that. He has read this totally wrong if that is his
attitude. The reason that we put the amendment forward is, as the minister stated before, that the big
frogs are swallowing up the little frogs. We do not want that to happen. We do not want any threat to the
actual race club itself as this club may get bigger and better with outside functions. What we are trying to
put in place through this House is a mechanism that will protect the actual race dates and race clubs
and the members in it, and that is rightfully so. The harness board could get rid of the trust if that was not
the case. We can legislate this today by passing this amendment and putting it into solid law.
Question—That Mr Hopper’s amendment be agreed to—put; and the House divided—
AYES, 18—Copeland, E Cunningham, Foley, Hobbs, Horan, Johnson, Knuth, Lee Long, Lingard, Menkens, Messenger, Pratt,
Rickuss, Rowell, Seeney, Springborg. Tellers: Hopper, Malone
NOES, 62—Attwood, Barry, Beattie, Bligh, Boyle, Briskey, Choi, L Clark, Croft, Cummins, N Cunningham, Fenlon, Finn, Flegg,
Fouras, Fraser, Hayward, Hoolihan, Jarratt, Keech, Langbroek, Lavarch, Lawlor, Lee, Livingstone, Male, McArdle, McNamara,
Mickel, Miller, Molloy, Mulherin, Nelson-Carr, Nuttall, O’Brien, Palaszczuk, Pearce, Pitt, Poole, Purcell, Quinn, Reeves, Reilly,
Reynolds, E Roberts, N Roberts, Robertson, Schwarten, Scott, Shine, Smith, Spence, Stone, Struthers, Stuckey, C Sullivan,
Wallace, Welford, Wells, Wilson. Tellers: T Sullivan, Nolan
Resolved in the negative.
Clause 4, as read, agreed to.
Schedule, as read, agreed to.
Bill read a third time.
Third Reading