Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I will be brief. Airports Amendment Bill 2010 relates to airport land and I have raised a concern with the minister’s office and with the department on the issue of gambling premises on airport land. I have asked whether state regulations apply, as a matter of course, both to the approval process for putting a poker machine venue on airport land and to the rules and regulations applying to problem gambling. I have had a useful discussion with both the department and the minister’s office on this and I understand the minister may be making an undertaking or confirming that there will be further review of this issue.

It is an issue that I think has been raised at a ministerial council level, but it would have been remiss of me not to have raised this issue to ensure that if a gambling venue is on airport land there ought to be, at the very least, the same rules that apply to venues on non-Commonwealth land in terms of both the approval process for such a venue and the regulation of those premises. My first preference is that there not be any more poker machine venues established on airport land or any further proliferation of gambling venues. That is where I am at on this bill and I would be grateful if I could hear from the minister on this issue following my discussions with Minister Albanese’s office and the department.