Page 1669 - Week 05 - Thursday, 11 May 2017
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
(c) strongly consider implementing a package of substantive measures including LVC remissions or waivers, and moderated rates and charges to facilitate opportunities for transition to other business models and opportunities; and
(d) increase the transparency of the social impact assessment process to allow easy access to relevant documents and enable all Canberrans to contribute to decisions regarding the presence of poker machines in their local communities.”.
My amendment aims to inject a degree of fair play and common sense into this chamber’s consideration of problem gambling and what I see as obsessive attempts of the Greens to demonise our community clubs. In this context, I appeal to Mr Rattenbury and the rest of this chamber to inject a degree of balance into the gambling debate and its resolution.
There are a few things I would like to say in relation to Mr Rattenbury’s motion. Mr Rattenbury has asserted that we have the highest level of poker machines per person in the country. In terms of actual operating machines, that is not quite correct. Nevertheless, is it not fascinating, Madam Assistant Speaker, that despite this plague of poker machines that Mr Rattenbury refers to, we in the ACT have the lowest problem gambling rate in the entire nation?
More than anything else I think that is an endorsement of the way that our clubs assist problem gamblers. They must be doing many things right. There is already an extensive network of avenues for helping problem gamblers with their difficulty, including experienced and capable organisations such as Lifeline, the Salvation Army, Relationships Australia and several online assistance services. In this regard, it is vital that individuals have the assistance to realise that they have a problem and have a sympathetic source of help to deal with that problem.
I must point out that, as a business model, poker machines are a dying model. Their revenue continues to decline. Sometimes I am not sure why those on the left spend so much time trying to bring this old dinosaur down, because market forces will determine that it soon dies a natural death. As stated by the Australian government Department of Social Services:
Online gambling is the fastest growing gambling segment, growing at 15% per annum, with over $1.4 billion gambled online each year. Digital technology is also enabling illegal operators to reach our phones, our televisions, our home computers at any time of the day or night.
If you wind the clock forward 10 years, 90 per cent of this nation’s gambling will be done online. You cannot address problem gambling by restricting individuals’ access to their own money. On a wider basis, it will not work.
I turn to the number of poker machines per adult. This motion uses licence numbers to overstate the ratio. In reality there were 4,569 operational machines as at 31 March 2017 and 294,021 adults. This yields a ratio of 15.5 poker machines per adult. The
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video