The Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie, has welcomed the loud voice of GetUp! to the groundswell of public support for a mandatory pre-commitment system to reduce problem gambling on poker machines.
In an address at the National Press Club of Australia, Mr Wilkie today announced GetUp! would urge its 440,000 members to lobby for the poker machine reforms in his agreement with the Prime Minister.
“Clubs Australia has armed itself with a $20-million disinformation campaign and thinks it can buy its way out of these reforms to diminish problem gambling on poker machines,’’ Mr Wilkie said.
“The industry might be loud and rich but it won’t win this fight because it doesn’t represent the millions of Australians who have been touched by poker machine addiction and are demanding this change.
“This is ordinary Australians standing up to drown out one of the biggest political campaigns the country has ever seen.’’
Mr Wilkie also used his address to destroy Clubs Australia’s protests, which are aimed at protecting the billions of dollars problem gamblers lose to poker machines every year in Australia.
“These reforms are not a thought bubble from me,’’ he said.
“The Productivity Commission no less has recommended a mandatory pre-commitment system as a `strong, practicable and ultimately cost-effective option for harm minimisation’,’’ he said.
Mr Wilkie also dismissed Clubs Australia’s wild claims that the cost of installing the technology would reach billions and drive clubs and pubs to the wall.
“On the one hand, Clubs Australia claims the cost of installing a mandatory pre-commitment system will bankrupt clubs and pubs, but then it says it’s happy to install voluntary pre-commitment technology, which would cost just the same,’’ he said.
“Clubs Australia is trying to have a bet each way and anyway it’s far too early to predict the cost of installing the technology because we have not even settled on what technology to use.’’
Mr Wilkie said industry claims that recreational players would abandon poker machines were also baseless as a mandatory pre-commitment system would likely accommodate occasional players with low-value cards or low-intensity poker machines, as recommended by the Productivity Commission.
Mr Wilkie launched a petition from GetUp! calling on the Government to introduce poker machine reform and promised to present it to the Prime Minister when it reached 100,000 signatures.
