ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury said he was frustrated with ”unprogressive” Labor on pokies reform and would seek support across the aisle. Photo: Supplied.
ACT Greens leader and Gaming Minister Shane Rattenbury says he is frustrated with ACT Labor’s “unprogressive” approach to gambling reform, and will seek an alliance with the Liberals to pass poker machine harm minimisation legislation.
Mr Rattenbury said he would introduce laws that would allow for the creation of a central monitoring system (CMS), a tool that links all ACT poker machines with the intention of collecting data and limiting gambling losses. He says Labor MLAs are refusing to support this.
“The ACT Labor Party has avoided, delayed, and ultimately rejected these best-practice reforms. It will come at the cost of the community’s wellbeing and livelihood,” he said.
“The primary objection identified by Labor is the cost of implementing a CMS. Yet detailed modelling shows that such an approach would cost less than 5 per cent of poker machine profits over the next 20 years.
“Labor’s failure is a setback for the critical task of harm reduction, it is a disappointing outcome for the ACT community, and it is a decidedly ‘unprogressive’ approach, contrary to the values Labor purports to represent.”
Chief Minister Andrew Barr told a press conference on Friday (30 August) that the Greens were playing politics.
“The discussion on the CMS is proving to be a challenge … it’s expensive and can be circumvented by people going across the border,” Mr Barr said.
“I think there is a pathway forward here but the eve of an election is perhaps not the easiest environment to get the Greens to compromise on many things. There are quite a lot of promises they are making that are just not practical or achievable.”
ClubsACT CEO Craig Shannon is also frustrated.
“We have an undignified and purely self-promoting debate occurring in the Assembly that benefits nobody,” he said.
“The club industry in Canberra has sought and obtained in-principle support from the three major parties for an independent inquiry into the club industry that should address all the issues being raised next week and would allow for an evidence-based policy response by the next Assembly.
“It is appalling that Canberra political representatives treat the club industry and our members and the issue of gambling harm as political footballs for self-promotion purposes. It’s a childish and counterproductive approach to public policy development.
“We are calling on all the Assembly political parties to refrain from any further legislation impacting on our industry until the independent inquiry into the club industry is completed, allowing factual evidence to be used to shape policies going forward.”
ClubsACT CEO Craig Shannon has called on political parties to stop playing politics on gambling reforms. Photo: ClubsACT.
Exact details on the ACT Greens’ proposed legislative changes have not been made public, but Mr Rattenbury indicated he would also be looking at mandatory cashless gambling that required all gamblers to have an account and mandatory pre-commitment with default loss and time limits for all gamblers. If Labor does not support the reforms, the Greens would be able to pass them with the support of the Liberals.
The Canberra Liberals declined to say whether they’ll support the Greens on this matter, indicating they would express their view when the issue was debated in the Legislative Assembly.
Mr Barr said Labor would definitely be supporting a bill before the assembly to reduce the number of pokies to 3500.
“We think that’s still too many machines and that number should continue to reduce over time,” he said.
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