SA LOTTERIES

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (14:57): My question is to the Treasurer. What amounts will now be paid into the hospital fund and the recreation and sport fund each year from the budget to replace lost dividends following the sale of the SA Lotteries licence, given that last year $24 million in dividends from SA Lotteries was paid into those funds?

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Treasurer, Minister for Workers Rehabilitation, Minister for Defence Industries, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (14:57): The $24 million is dwarfed by the more than $60 million in gambling taxes which are paid every year and which go into the sport and recreation and hospital funds. It is a very small amount of money. What I can say—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: It is a small amount of money relative to the gambling taxes that continue and that, most importantly, are protected by this transaction. As I have explained to the house before, with the national lottery market and the importance of the bloc to the profitability of SA Lotteries, the potential risk of the Tatts Group pulling out of the bloc would mean that SA Lotteries would basically be an unviable organisation. It would have destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds, if not thousands, of newsagents and agents who sell lotteries products, whose livelihoods depend upon the sale of lotteries products.

The fact that we have entered into this arrangement with the Tatts Group protects, firstly, the livelihoods of those newsagents and, secondly, the gambling tax revenues that this state receives that go straight into the health fund, the hospital fund and the sport and recreation fund, which is exactly what we are talking about.