Poker machine bets of up $10 a time will be allowed up laws passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly yesterday.
The law will permit linked jackpots with other clubs, to provide bigger jackpots and will permit clubs to increase the percentage of turnover on average paid out to players.
The Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, said the new rules would make clubs more competitive with NSW. The law would contain new anti-corruption provisions.
Laws to control emissions from solid fuel fires to attack Canberra’s winter brown haze were announced yesterday by the ACT Minister for the Environment, Bill Wood.
New solid-fuel appliances would have to comply with national standards. Existing appliances should be used according to simple rules. There would be an education program before the law came in to force.
Use of pollution-control notices to stop pollution from chimneys would be a last resort.
The ACT Auditor-General gave a good mark to the ACT Government housing loans schemes, saying they were unlikely to suffer the problems of NSW and other states.
NSW got into strife for lending money to people who could not afford them, especially as interest rates went up. Defaults were rife.
The Auditor’s report tabled yesterday said ACT procedures had resulted in extremely low levels of default and that risks to the ACT were low.
However, the auditor suggested some improvements in management and reporting.
The auditor criticised procedures for the purchase of a $155,000 local area computer network for the fire service. The project had not met its objective. Usual business procedures had not been followed.
It criticised procedures which enabled departments to take money from recurrent accounts for capital spending saying it indicated an inability to manage budgets.
The Assembly passed changes to the traffic laws yesterday that will enable the Minister to change traffic fines, without a separate Act. The Minister’s action will be subject to Assembly veto. The changes bring all the fines under one set of regulations. The size of the fines (at least for now) remain unchanged.