Page 2073 - Week 07 - Thursday, 20 August 2020
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MS LAWDER: Minister, how and at what time were Google accounts closed down?
MS BERRY: At 12.40 the Google accounts were shut down, and no further emails could be sent.
MS LEE: Minister, why did it take until 7.30 pm that night, on Friday, to inform parents?
MS BERRY: I will just correct that; it was 1 o’clock when the Google system was shut down, not 12.40. The parents were notified that evening because we were still working out how far the emails had been distributed across the community. It was quite a complex and complicated issue, as you would understand, with information technology, so making sure that we had all of the correct information provided to parents all at the same time was the most important thing for the Education Directorate.
Gaming—gambling harm prevention and mitigation fund
MS LE COUTEUR: My question is to the Attorney-General and relates to the gambling harm prevention and mitigation fund. I understand that in March this year there was $2.4 million sitting in this fund unspent. Minister, why is there such a large amount of money unspent, and were any of these funds spent during the COVID shutdown of poker machines, allowing support and education for people with gambling dependence during this period?
MR RAMSAY: I thank Ms Le Couteur for the question. In relation to the gambling harm prevention and mitigation fund, I will take the question as Minister for Business and Regulatory Services because it sits under the Gambling and Racing Commission for ongoing work. I will take on notice the amount of money that was sitting in the fund. I do not believe that the amount that Ms Le Couteur has quoted is entirely accurate, so I will need to take that one on notice.
A range of work is being undertaken by the GRC and I commend them for that. That includes research in terms of prevalence and ways of being able to mitigate the harm caused by gambling. Indeed, it also looks at the ways that the next steps may be able to be taken, beyond COVID-19, for clubs and for gaming organisations.
MS LE COUTEUR: Minister, the government website implies that expenditure is entirely proposal driven. Is that correct, and what is the process for government disbursement of these funds? Is there any active strategy for targeting these funds?
MR RAMSAY: Yes, there is indeed a targeted strategy that falls under the responsibilities of the Gambling and Racing Commission. There are a range of matters that are worked out through that. It is not only that the funds can be distributed for a request, though that is one of the ways. One of the things that the GRC does regularly, for example, is to commission research. The prevalence research that has been recently commissioned is part of that work as well.
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