Former Labor candidate Fabiano Cangelosi slams party for backing government’s pokies stance
David Killick | Mercury Newspaper | 19 October 2021
A former Labor candidate has accused the party of “spitting in the face of its members” by backing the government’s gambling industry reforms.
Labor members voted with the government in a series of divisions on the floor in Parliament last week in support of its Gaming Control Amendment bill.
Fabiano Cangelosi, who stood for Labor in the seat of Franklin at the May 1 state election, has written to Labor’s state and federal MPs saying that by “capitulating on a matter of principle, it will have surrendered the very heart of the Party to the business lobby”.
“We may yet see the Party convulse in a further paroxysm in the coming months,” he wrote.
“But mark the passage of the government bill without any legislated harm minimisation measures as that point.
“Because, by ignoring the platform, the Parliamentary Labor Caucus will have spat in the face of its members.
“By siding with a conservative government, it will have been complicit in the betrayal of the most vulnerable.”
Labor MP Michelle O’Byrne said Labor’s policy had changed since the 2018 election — when it wanted to ban poker machines outside of casinos.
“So obviously the Labor Party has gone through a very long process around a gaming reform and electronic gaming,” she said.
“Noone is unaware that it was our position in 2018. We took a very strong case to the community, the community did not embrace that case.”
She said the party was focused on pursuing harm-minimisation measures enacted to better protect problem gamblers.
Mr Cangelosi said he had spoken to many Labor members who wanted the party fight harder to protect those at risk of problem gambling and not leave it to the Greens and independents.
“Now is the time for us to treat Labor principles as both our anchor and our compass,” he wrote.
“Now is the time for us to weigh that anchor deep, and to fix our position in the labour movement.
“Now is the time for us to let that compass show true north.”
Mr Cangelosi, a well-known criminal barrister, received 724 primary votes in the May 1 poll, the lowest total for a Labor candidate in the seat.
THE Liberal and Labor parties have adopted the same two harm minimisation measures on the day long-awaited new gambling laws were introduced into state parliament.
Neither party would say where they got the idea from nor how much they received in donations from gambling interests in recent years.
An overhaul of the state’s gaming industry has been on the cards since before the 2014 election.
Before tabling the 244-page bill in parliament on Tuesday, Michael Ferguson said the government would ask Tasmanian Gaming Commission to investigate two additional specific harm minimisation measures.
“First, facial recognition technology in hotels, clubs and casinos in support of the Tasmanian Gambling Exclusion Scheme and second, a smart card‑based client identification system for electronic gaming machines in hotels, clubs and casinos.”
On Monday, Labor’s Josh Willie said his party had not finalised its position on the legislation. By early Tuesday, MP Dean Winter was touting the same two harm minimisation measures.
He said he did not know whether Labor has taken money from the industry and the party arrived at the same position as the government independently.
“I just want to make this really clear: … the Labor Party decides our policy,” he said.
“We do not allow others to dictate what we do. We are in charge of our own destiny and our own policy.”
Labor backed a total ban on pokies at the 2018 election but dropped the policy after its loss.
Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said both major parties had caved in to vested interests.
“As a result of the power and influence of the gambling industry, we’ve got the two major parties here once again, rolling over to do their donors’ bidding and put the put the health and well being of Tasmanians last,” she said.
Independent MP for Clark Kristie Johnston described the tabling of the legislation as “payday for the pokies barons”.
During question time she asked the Premier to disclose the amount of donations the Liberals had received from the industry.
The reply was short: “Neither I nor my office are there to do your work for you,” he said.
“The Australian Electoral Commission has on its website the donations that have been received over the last five years. If you are serious about this and serious about being in this place, then you should do the work. That is on the public record. I advise you to have a look.”
Thanks to Tasmania’s weak political donation laws — the vast majority of donations remain forever secret.
Ms Johnston later said the party had received more than $1.1m in cash in recent years from gambling interests that was declared.
“I suspect he’s too embarrassed and too ashamed to say that his party has quite clearly been bought by the gaming industry,” she said.
Legislative Council member Meg Webb said the decision to pick just relatively two ineffective harm minimisation measures was appalling.
“The industry is purchasing policy to ensure no meaningful protections are put in place to reduce addiction and stem the blood money,” she said.
Also in parliament on Tuesday, a Greens bid to bring a motion of no confidence in Resources Minister Guy Barnett over his handling of mining leases in the Tarkine was narrowly defeated.
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