Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

Governments in Australia must love poker machines. They are addicted to the money they rake in from pokies, and it is obvious governments are not going to do anything that would cut the billions of dollars of revenue they take each year. Between a third and half of that pokies cash comes from problem gamblers. State governments in Australia have persistently ignored problem gamblers, and that is why Family First introduced two draft laws to help fix the problem.

Family First is astounded that the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs has decided to stand by and let state governments continue to take advantage of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable problem gamblers. The committee has shelved extensive and detailed evidence presented on Family First bills in favour of much of the same evidence that we will get from another Productivity Commission report. An updated Productivity Commission report will provide very important and useful information but it should not be used as an excuse for a lack of action now. One of the reasons some groups have lobbied for the Productivity Commission report is in fact to delay a decision to take real action to reduce problem gambling from pokies in the hope that their revenue will be protected.

The committee failed to make one recommendation for action to fix the scourge of problem gambling. COAG announced on 3 July this year it would ask for a Productivity Commission report into gambling. So why did the Senate committee continue an inquiry and hold four sets of hearings in September and October if it had no intention of making any real recommendations?

Family First is calling not for poker machines to be outlawed but simply for more restrictions to be placed on them to protect chronic gamblers from spending too much. The federal government must intervene to enforce limits on poker machine operations where hopelessly addicted state governments will not. Dealing with the problem of poker machines has not been high on the priorities of the federal, state and territory governments, with the Ministerial Council on Gambling’s meeting on 25 July 2008 being the first meeting since October 2006.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he hates poker machines, but there are very strong and entrenched interests which favour the status quo, including the industry and state governments. Those who deal with the despair of problem gamblers felt there was some hope in the Prime Minister’s comment that he hates poker machines, but, when it comes to the crunch of breaking the state governments’ addiction, the Rudd government has been slow to tackle the issue. The committee has ducked making any recommendations for action on poker machines. Until the government decides to do something, expressions of concern are just words. They do nothing to help problem gamblers beat their addiction and they do nothing to support families fractured by the despair of living with a chronic gambler.

The poker machine industry has supported a Productivity Commission inquiry into gambling—no wonder!—in the hope that the passage of time will mean their revenue is safe. Both the Australian Hotels Association and Clubs Australia supported the new Productivity Commission inquiry, yet both dispute the validity of figures produced by the 1999 Productivity Commission inquiry into gambling. Why would anyone expect them to agree with the outcome of a new inquiry, especially if their businesses are threatened? I imagine, from their perspective, it gives them more time to bleed more money out of chronic gamblers.

The chairperson of the Gambling Impact Society of New South Wales commented to the committee on the lack of action resulting from the 1999 Productivity Commission report, but now we are waiting for another report and hoping someone will do something as a result. Evidence presented to the committee estimated that problem or at-risk gamblers account for between a third and more than 50 per cent of expenditure on poker machines. The most recent edition of the Australian Gambling Review reports that ‘problem gamblers are estimated to lose $12,000 per year or a rate of $250 per week.’ A paper published this year in International Gambling Studies stated that more than 50 per cent of regular poker machine users are problem gamblers or at risk of becoming problem gamblers. The close link between poker machines and problem gambling is shown by the fact that about 85 per cent of problem gamblers use poker machines.

In reaction to Family First legislation, the Australian Hotels Association and Clubs Australia have recently recommended harm reduction measures, which begs the question why they did not move to introduce these measures earlier. Poker machines are addictive for players but they are also addictive for state and territory governments. State government revenue from poker machines and Keno in 2006-07 was almost $3 billion. Gambling addicted state governments are incapable of weaning themselves off poker machine taxes. It is time the federal government intervened to send state governments to poker machine detox. The committee could easily have made recommendations on automatic teller machines and whether cash withdrawals should be limited or the machines removed from premises that have poker machines. Two of the bills dealt with the ATMs and there was extensive evidence provided to the committee. In the end the committee put the issue in the too-hard basket. Unless there is federal intervention on pokies, the policy paralysis at the state level will continue. The states have shown they are incapable of kicking their addiction to pokies. That is why federal intervention is desperately needed.

Family First proposed two laws as part of the plan to address problem gambling. The first, the Family First Poker Machine Harm Minimisation Bill 2008, sets out the number of harm minimisation measures which would limit the amount of money gamblers can lose and slow down the addictive nature of poker machines. Family First’s Poker Machine Harm Reduction Tax (Administration) Bill 2008 dealt with the problem of accessibility of poker machines. It would over time see pokies out of pubs and clubs and have them restricted to casinos and racetracks, which are dedicated gambling venues. Governments are addicted to poker machine revenue. The lure of money far outweighs concerns about problem gamblers. Governments say they hate pokies but when it comes down to the crunch they would much rather have the money. That is not what Australians expect of their governments. To turn their back on the despair this brings to families is absolutely shameful. Clearly state governments are hopelessly addicted to the pokie profits. The states have shown they are incapable of kicking their addiction to pokie revenue. That is why federal intervention is urgently required.