Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand here today to speak with those many thousands of good Tasmanians who consider themselves loyal Liberal Party voters. I stand here to say this to the loyal Liberal voters of Tasmania: you may have never voted Labor before; you may never vote Labor again; but this Saturday, if you want poker machines out of our community clubs and pubs, you must vote Labor. I know I ask no small thing. As a lifelong Labor voter, I cannot imagine what it would take for me to vote anything other than Labor. I appreciate and respect those who consider themselves Liberal voters. Like me, they are wedded to their values and principles. I know that many Liberal voters in Tasmania are concerned about the spread of pokies through our state. I know that many Liberal voters in Tasmania share my view that the spread of pokies is harmful to our wider community and to many individuals caught in their deliberately addictive grip. My exhortation to Liberals who want pokies out is simply this: this opportunity to get them out will never come again. If you vote Liberal on Saturday, the pokies will be there forever. This Saturday is our state's one and only chance to get them out. Only a Rebecca White Labor government will have the courage to stand up to the pokie barons and get pokies out of community pubs and clubs.