Question Without Notice No. 734 asked in the Legislative Council on 31 October 2017 by Hon Colin Holt
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
GAMING AND WAGERING COMMISSION
734. Hon COLIN HOLT to the minister representing the Minister for Racing and Gaming:
Would the minister please provide the amount of revenue received by the Gaming and Wagering Commission of Western Australia through the racing bets levy for each of the financial years 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16 and 2016–17?
Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the honourable member for notice of this question. The following information has been provided to me by the Minister for Racing and Gaming.
The revenue received by the Gaming and Wagering Commission of Western Australia through the racing bets levy for the 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15 and 2015–16 financial years is available in the Gaming and Wagering Commission's annual reports, which are publicly available. The 2016–17 revenue figures will be available in the Gaming and Wagering Commission's annual report, which was tabled in Parliament in September.Point of Order
Hon COLIN HOLT: Madam President, publicly available it may be. However, I have asked a question for that information to be supplied to me. It has happened previously that I have been referred to an annual report. There have been rulings in this place about ministers referring members to websites to go and get our information. I have asked a question so that those figures can be put on the record in Parliament.
Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN: I am happy to take this back to the Minister for Racing and Gaming.
Hon Colin Holt: It's your answer.
Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN: I am happy to take this back and provide further information tomorrow.
Several members interjected.
The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister has offered to go back to the appropriate minister in the other place, retrieve that information and seek to provide it. So I think that has provided the response that Hon Colin Holt wanted.
Hon COLIN HOLT: Just to be clear, Madam President, is that the ruling from now on about those sorts of situations when a question is asked and we expect an answer, even if the information is publicly available?
The PRESIDENT: I must admit I will have to go back and read what the minister said in the initial response. I know that in the past there have been problems when responses have just said, ''Go and refer to website www.whatever'', and that has been managed. On this occasion, the minister has agreed to go back and retrieve the appropriate information.
For other ministers and parliamentary secretaries, perhaps it is just a timely reminder that when specific information is required, if the response that is provided to you from another minister does not resolve that, you should not provide that response but go back and seek additional information and not just refer members to other places in which they might find the information.