Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Well, Parliamentary Secretary, let's be honest about it: this is about a cash grab to line up the bottom line of your budget and nothing more. That is why it is being done with this speed. And those young children sitting up in the gallery watching you would say, 'What are you doing to my future earning capacity when you have designed a scheme that now, within 12 months of deemed inactivity, by criteria set down by you and your colleagues that will take that money away?'

I have real concerns, and I believe that this bill before the House is going to be supported by Independents because there was a deal done. And that deal is the poker machines legislation which will be brought into this House tonight, which the government previously said would not work—in fact, Minister Macklin said on a number of occasions that the voluntary precommitment would not work. But, such is the demand from perhaps the member for Denison that he wants his bill through, and the government needs his support on this bill to get it through to prop up the bottom line. This government is selling out the hotel and the club industries for the purposes of getting this bill through. I will have more to say on that tonight, when I speak to the gambling reforms legislation.

I want to say that I feel very uncomfortable with this bill. I am glad that the shadow Treasurer will be moving a number of regulatory changes to make sure that it conforms more with sound, sensible responses—particularly at the time in which this will all come together. But I want to say I feel uncomfortable, because it is clear that this bill does nothing more than raid the bank accounts and superannuation funds of people to prop up the government's bottom line. Be honest about it.

See this speech in context