Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to oppose the National Gambling Reform Bill 2012 and cognate bills, this insidious legislation that will deliver no more than what is already out there. Only this Labor government, supported by the member for Denison, would believe that introducing another layer of bureaucratic regulation will cure an addiction. It won't. It is the same as saying to an alcoholic, 'We'll limit you to one drink a day, and that will cure your addiction.' It does not work that way.

Anyone who has dealt with people with addictions understands one thing: it is education, information and intervention that address addiction. Only a fool would believe that someone with a serious gambling problem would voluntarily put forward a limit on themselves on how much they will spend. Only a fool would believe that that would restrict them to this one form of gambling, because when they have hit their limit they will then move home to the computer, go on the internet and gamble way, or they will go to the track and bet on the horses. They might slip down to the SP or down to the TAB. You see, this is incomplete.

This is a dirty deal that was done to get government. This was a deal that was put to the back blocks and then, when they needed the member for Denison's vote, resurrected again. In fact, it was the minister who said back in May that voluntary precommitment would not work. But here we have this hypocritical move where the legislation has come forward. I just have to wonder: which bill is it that they need the vote of the member for Denison to achieve, for which they have sold out an industry? They are prepared to sell out an industry such as the clubs and hotels to the tune of $1 billion—that is what the cost of this will be—for a vote. That is an expensive little vote—expensive for other people. By the way, it amounts to around a $120 million cost for the clubs and pubs in my electorate of Paterson. It is $120 million in my electorate and $1 billion across Australia that will not be spent upgrading facilities, employing more people—

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