Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

We have only just been presented with this amendment. I accept the time constraints that Senator Xenophon has been working under. Senator Xenophon, I do accept your concern. Whether or not this is an issue to the extent you or some in the media have identified, I simply do not know. I do not have advice on that. I accept the concern that you have expressed about gaming related activities, although I do not necessarily agree with at least some of the points you make. The amendment you are suggesting would have some significance. Our concern is, firstly, whether or not it is a justifiable response, given what we are informed of at this late stage—whether it would be justifiable in the context of the concern you have. It is very, very late to be raising an amendment of this nature.

The objective of the AML/CTF Act relates to the deterrence of money laundering and to hardening reporting entities against terrorism financing. The regulation of gaming venues—of course, we have heard a lot about this in recent times—and their oversight for other purposes is undertaken at a state or territory level. There is a whole set of other proposals and they are controversial, depending on your perspective. All the states and territories other than Tasmania, I am advised, have limits on the amount of cash that can be paid out in winnings from poker machines. The maximum amount that can be paid out is $2,000. Interestingly, my home state of Tasmania bans the use of note acceptors, which means that winnings in that state tend to be lower, because they do not have the facilities of note acceptors—