Rare opportunity to tackle the pain and addiction of the pokies

Talking Point | Mercury | 13 October 2021    

Meg Webb says the day has arrived for all Tasmanian MPs to show they truly care about the grief and misery being unleashed in our poorest communities.

POKIES legislation debated in state parliament this week may become a case study in vested interests buying a lucrative policy outcome.

This could be a textbook case of Gutwein’s Liberals and Labor opposition showing they are at the beck and call of an industry that strengthened its policy and regulatory capture under the guise of  reform.

Let’s review some facts:

• ONE in six people who regularly use a poker machine recreationally become addicted.
• ABOUT half the losses to pokies come from people who are addicted or developing an addiction.
• THE addiction and harm is largely preventable.

We know what would prevent it — programming changes to the machines that would have no negative impact on recreational use or on jobs in the industry.

The only reason any government would refuse to put these measures in place is to protect industry profit that comes from addicted people.

The question to every Tasmanian MP is: Will you be complicit in entrenching the pokies harm in our state or will you vote to reduce it? This is major reform. This is the clear opportunity to introduce effective consumer protection to an addictive and dangerous product.

To refuse to do that would be an obscene failure of responsibility by the Gutwein Liberal government and the Labor opposition.

Fair’s fair: the gaming industry can keep every dollar of profit from genuinely recreational use of machines — that is about half of the profit they currently take.

But as far as I’m concerned, they have no right to the profit that comes from actively causing addiction and harming Tasmanian people and families. That profit is blood money.

It’s that portion of profit the industry ruthlessly seeks to protect through its political and financial influence.

The industry is purchasing policy to ensure no meaningful protections are put in place to reduce addiction and stem the blood money.

Lack of consumer protection and harm minimisation in the legislation has been a focus of public commentary because that is the aspect of this issue which is about people’s lives at risk.

Every day, thousands of Tasmanian families’ lives are ruined by an addiction to poker machines.

This devastating harm ripples out into our community — affecting health, mental health, family violence, criminal justice, employment, education and community safety.

However, the lack of harm minimisation is only one aspect of this complex reform.

It is a policy that fails on many other fronts — virtually none of which have had adequate public examination and discussion.

Did you know that this legislation introduces two new gambling products to our state? Do you wonder whether our state has the capacity to effectively set and enforce regulation on the proposed high roller casinos, when four larger states are currently having Royal Commissions that show massive failures of regulation in that area?

Are you aware of the risk the new pokies licensing model holds for some pokies pubs that are not owned by big interests, especially in regional areas? Did you know that under this reform the end-date of pokies venue licences will not stay aligned and no future government will ever again have a moment-in-time opportunity for reform like this one we  have now.

That is just a glimpse of the myriad undiscussed and unexamined matters in this legislation which the Gutwein Liberal government and Labor opposition are gearing up to wave through at the bidding of their donors. I challenge every single MP who intends to support this legislation to prove — with substantial evidence — that they are putting their community’s interests first and achieving the best outcome possible through this reform.

They can’t do it. They are, every single one of them in both major parties, hopelessly compromised and exposed.

This public policy travesty is perpetrated by the Gutwein government, but it’s not good enough for Labor to lay down and play dead. Voting in alignment with your values, in the interests of your community is your responsibility, especially in opposition when you must show your worthiness as a future government.

While Labor can’t prevent the Bill’s passage in the House of Assembly, it can in the Upper House.

Labor can be a true champion for the community by shining light on this legislation and voting to send it to a committee for thorough examination and advice.

Make no mistake, the vote of every MP on this damaging Bill will be remembered.

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