Barr's clubs move an attempt to remove another barnacle

Trying to scrape the barnacle off with an oar, if not done by an experienced rower, can easily create more drag than the parasite itself caused.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr has been removing a fair few barnacles, as John Winston liked to call them, of late.

In the wake of the leading incumbent have been left several policies.

They range from the altogether abandoned (night club fee increases, gags on public servants), to the delayed, the significantly curtailed and the kept quiet until October 16 (bail plans, anti-consorting laws).

On the eve of a Clubs ACT-planned protest against general increases in rates and taxes and the Barr Government's moves to allow more pokies into the mooted casino redevelopment, Mr Barr seemingly sent Gaming Minister Mick Gentleman to take out the trash.

While not an outright withdrawal of the original plans for the casino, this newspaper reported it as an "election sweetener" for the ACT's clubs.

Among the changes proposed were: a 50 per cent tax break on clubs' poker machine-derived revenue for some clubs, reviewing a decision to cap the number of pokies in the ACT at 15 for every 1000 adults from mid-2018 and a $10,000 "cash grant" for about 14 of the ACT's 49 clubs.

It would also review the regulatory arrangements, including rates, impacting clubs; review lease variation charges for smaller clubs; cut licensing fees for clubs that close early and ensure "competitive neutrality" between casino and club-owned pokies; adjust liquor licensing fees to "reflect risk" and review harm minimisation strategies.

The policy would cost about $4.4 million over four years. A small impact, but one the government is prepared to pay. The opposition is critical of the proposal, but is yet to outline its plans, if any.

In late June this year, Clubs ACT launched a campaign against the government's original plans and the increasing tax burden clubs face.

For nearly three months since, some clubs have been executing the campaign; regular frequenters of these establishments may well be familiar with the posters and coasters.

In the middle of the election campaign, and several weeks since the clubs' campaign began, Mr Gentleman made it clear this week's move was "not about politics".

It was, he said, about "assisting those community clubs that we've been a supporter of for many years".

The government, he said, understood the clubs' "struggles" – and the policy would go some way to addressing that for some players in the sector.

For his part, Clubs ACT chief executive Gwynn Rees said "a tax break for gaming to assist clubs to rely less on gaming" was "a funny concept".

The clubs are, and have been for some time, facing the slow tightening of the ratchet of increasing costs.

But the "Supporting Local Community Clubs Policy" seems less a considered one, than a last-minute effort to quell dissent.

It also does not tackle the question of weaning clubs off the increasingly problematic revenue source that is pokies cash.

In the absence of a fully-developed, evidence-based policy, it seems a review or two will do.