Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Casey for his forbearance. The issue of poker machines is an issue that is very close to my heart. In my maiden speech, I spoke on how poker machines might be regulated in the community and this has been an issue that I have spoken on in the House many times since. So it is a great honour and pleasure to speak on the tabling of the Joint Select Committee on Gambling Reform's report in the House.

It was an honour to work with the committee, particularly with the member for Denison and Senator Nick Xenophon. I think they have done a good job in putting this issue in the public's mind and to the forefront of the business of this parliament. So I hope that the report is read and considered by members and that it helps form a policy response for members.

Great damage is done by poker machines, electronic gaming machines, in our community. If you take the time to meet with people who have become addicted to these machines, you hear a lot of stories about the hardship and sorrow for the victims of these machines: the addicts, and their families, as well as the people around them. We know that one in six Australians who regularly plays these machines becomes addicted to them. We know that on average they lose $21,000 a year. We know that the losers, the addicts, contribute about 40 per cent of the $12 billion in profits that are generated by these machines. Nearly $5 billion is poured into these machines by problem gamblers.

I have seen the damage done by these machines in my own electorate, which I have outlined to the House. I have a treatment service in Salisbury, and I can tell you that some of the people attending that treatment service lose a lot more than $21,000 in a year. The damage that is done by these machines demands a policy response. The two major reports by the Productivity Commission and this parliamentary report provide, I think, a strong foundation for a coherent policy response by this parliament.

There are a number of important recommendations in this parliamentary report entitled The design and implementation of a mandatory pre-commitment system for electronic gaming machines. I would ask the House to pay particular attention to recommendations 2, 11 and 34, which look to having a national jurisdiction for the regulation of these machines, the harmonisation of the standards—the so-called national standard—and also a national research capability. We simply do not regulate these machines appropriately, and we simply do not research their effects enough. Recommendation 12, which outlines our commitment to a pre-commitment system, is particularly important, as is recommendation 23, which outlines the committee's strong support for a self-exclusion scheme that will help addicts exclude themselves from playing these machines when they do not want to. It effectively allows them to bar themselves. I think recommendation 36, which recommends low-intensity machines, is a great step forward. It will do a lot of good in the community and prevent a lot of harm. Finally, recommendation 39 proves that the committee did listen to clubs and small venues and that it is aware of the very genuine concern that they would have trouble in the transition. The committee did listen to industry, to the addicts of these machines as well as to the social welfare organisations.

In conclusion, it has been a great privilege for me to be deputy chair of the committee. Again, I would like to thank the member for Denison for his very good work in chairing the committee. He was very fair to all members of the committee and ran a very good inquiry into this issue.

This is a very important report for the parliament, as I said. It will receive the strong support of the government. I sincerely hope that the recommendations find strong support in this House, and I commend the report to it.

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