Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I present the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs on the Poker Machine Harm Minimisation Bill 2008, the Poker Machine Harm Reduction Tax (Administration) Bill 2008 and the ATMs and Cash Facilities in Licensed Venues Bill 2008 together with the Hansard record of proceedings and documents presented to the committee.

Ordered that the report be printed.

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

Before Senator Fielding jumps up, I will make a couple of short comments on this series of bills that came before the Community Affairs Committee. These bills were presented to the Senate earlier this year in sequence and there was a decision made, through selection of bills, that the three of these bills, which had a common element, looking at gambling in our community, would be referred to the Community Affairs Committee for consideration. This was done in the period from September to November and over 75 submissions were received by our committee from people within our community who are genuinely concerned about the issues around gambling, their impact on society and in particular the problems that some people have with gambling.

There is real interest and real concern in our community about these affairs. I think a purpose of the bills presented by Senator Fielding and Senator Xenophon has been achieved: maintaining the interest of this place in these issues and ensuring that we as a community do not shirk our responsibilities and that we as a parliament, on all sides of it, understand that we have responsibilities and that there must be more discussion, more debate and much more research. I stress the issue of research particularly hard.

To put this in context, there has been wide interest in the impacts of gambling on the community. We had submissions that talked about the range of impacts. There were so many figures being thrown around in this debate, as often happens, that the impacts were very hard to define. What occurs is that, without a genuine evidence base so we can talk about where we are going, it is way too easy, and I think a bit of a cop out, to pull figures out of a hat in relation to what is in fact causing real harm to human beings. We have the history, which this place knows, where in August 1998 the then Commonwealth Treasurer, the Hon. Peter Costello, referred to the Australian Productivity Commission a detailed inquiry into the impact of gambling in our community. That is listed in our report. It is a very significant document. In fact, I think you almost need a wheelbarrow to cart it around. That in itself is a problem, because I believe that not many people have actually waded through the whole report. But it has been a genuine process of looking at the issues of gambling in our community. The committee inquired into:

… the economic impacts of the gambling industries, including interrelationships with other industries such as tourism, leisure, other entertainment and retailing; and—

what I think was the main focus of the bills before us today—

the social impacts of gambling industries, including the incidence of gambling abuse, the cost and nature of welfare support services, the redistributional effects of gambling and the effects of gambling on community development and the provision of other services.

On 26 November 1999 the Productivity Commission released a report which I think was aptly titled Australia’s gambling industries. This report indicated that there were real issues of harm in our community. The figures the commission quoted in 1999 were that around 130,000 Australians had severe problems and a further 160,000 were estimated to have moderate problems. They stated that there needed to be some form of treatment instituted and a look at developing policy to respond to the problem. Following the release of the report in 1999, the Commonwealth government established a ministerial council on gambling aimed at achieving a national approach to address problem gambling. That ministerial council still exists. It brings various state ministers together with their federal counterpart to look at the kinds of issues that were identified in the original Productivity Commission report.

I think largely due to public concern—and I think some of that has been led by Senators Xenophon and Fielding, with the support of other people in this area—there was a call during the time we were considering these bills for another referral to the Productivity Commission for a report. It is particularly important that we understand that it came out consistently throughout the process that the information and evidence that was released in 1999, important and valuable as it is, is dated. To our regret, this information has not been effectively updated in the nine- to 10-year period since. That is a major gap. It is a major worry for everyone in our community who is concerned about this issue, and it must be addressed.

The majority report of our committee—and I know we will have further comments from other senators in this place responding to this—says:

In view of the anticipated—

and now agreed—

Productivity Commission inquiry into Australia’s gambling industries, the Committee recommends that the Poker Machine Harm Reduction Tax (Administration) Bill 2008, the Poker Machine Harm Minimisation Bill 2008 and the ATMs and Cash Facilities Bill 2008 not be passed at this time.

It recommends that the real issues that have been raised in those bills be part of the Productivity Commission inquiry. In fact, the specific issues raised in these bills are part of the Productivity Commission referral—the way that the machines operate and the way that people respond, the support there must be in the community to help those with problem gambling, and the reliance on the money that comes out of gambling machines for state coffers. The latter was raised consistently, and I think it needs to be addressed. There needs to be some national consideration of the process.

At this time, to take three piecemeal bills and take some action, without the value of what will be a full-scale, deeply and effectively researched Productivity Commission report, would not be appropriate. I fully anticipate that other senators will talk about us moving away from our responsibilities and taking no action; I absolutely refute that. We are taking a responsible approach. We are engaging people to be part of this process, we are saying that there are issues and we are responding to the evidence that was given to us with great pain by a number of people across this community, including support groups and people who work on a daily basis with individuals and families who have been fractured by the evils of gambling. No-one is moving away from that. But there needs to be, as we consistently hear in this place, an effective evidence base for any action. We believe the appropriate way for that to happen is through the Productivity Commission, and we put that process in front of the Senate for consideration.