Pokies reforms under scrutiny

Sue Bailey | Mercury | 15 November 2021  

THE future of the government’s controversial poker machine reforms will again be debated in the Legislative Council this week.

At least one member of the Upper House it set to move for the Bill to be referred to a committee for an inquiry.

The government has warned it wants the legislation that ends Federal Group’s monopoly on poker machines among its reforms dealt with this year.

MLC for Nelson Meg Webb, an anti-pokies campaigner, wants Labor members to support an inquiry.

“If members don’t believe this Bill warrants the careful scrutiny of an inquiry, then no Bill coming through our chamber ever will,” she said.

“Rarely would a Bill come to parliament of such complexity and such consequence to our state, socially and financially.

“You would think any opposition worth its salt would be spurred into action by a plan that gifts a quarter of a billion dollars in tax concessions to one private business and risks higher levels of harm, according to our independent Gaming Commission.”

Ms Webb did not confirm she had 47 pages of amendments to the Bill, but said she did have amendments covering harm minimisation and consumer protection measures, taxation rates, reviews of data collection and reporting and licence periods.

“Given its raft of shortcomings and flaws, it would be astonishing if this Bill was passed by the Upper House unamended,” she said.

Health and Community Services Union secretary Tim Jacobson said he had written to all Labor MLCs urging them to support an inquiry.

“There is an opportunity to put this to an inquiry and to listen to the experts on this complex legislation,” he said.

“We need to hear from organisations such as Anglicare, which … knows first-hand how people’s lives are ruined by these machines.

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