Wilkie backs watered-down pokies bill

STATEMENT BY ANDREW WILKIE REGARDING GOVERNMENT POKER MACHINE REFORM

I’ve decided to vote in support of the Government’s National Gambling Reform Bill 2012.

Frankly the Bill’s a disappointing watering down of the deep poker machine reform agreed to with the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, after the 2010 federal election. But it’s the best thing on the table right now and a step in the right direction so I will support it.

The Government to its credit has agreed to two crucial amendments to the Bill which, in my opinion, fundamentally transform the reform for the better.

For a start the trial of mandatory pre-commitment in the Australian Capital Territory will be detailed in the Bill, including the requirement for independent bodies to design, manage and evaluate the trial, and for relevant data from neighbouring New South Wales to be included.

Also now explicit in the Bill will be the requirement that all new and retrofitted machines are to be capable of mandatory pre-commitment at the flick of a switch. In other words no future government of good heart will have to deal with the all the bleating about the supposed cost and technology hurdles of implementing mandatory pre-commitment.

Significant is the very fact that a Federal Government is progressing pokies reform at all. Until now, poker machine regulation has been the exclusive domain of the states and territories who have demonstratively failed to implement effective harm minimisation strategies. Now the states and territories are on notice – do something meaningful to protect problem gamblers or the Federal Government will clamp down even harder.

Since the 2010 federal election Australia’s poker machine problem gamblers have lost close to $10 billion on the machines. Many have gone broke and lost their jobs, families and friends. Some have even lost their lives. And all on a legal form of gambling using machines deliberately designed by the pokies industry to addict and fleece so-called players. It’s now up to the Government to get on and implement these reforms.