Motions

Gambling Reform

The Hon. C. BONAROS (16:46): I move:

That this council—

1. Notes that the latest figures from the 34th edition of Australian Gambling Statistics of total gambling expenditure in Australia for 2016-17 show that:

(a) the nation's gambling spend was $23.694 billion for 2016-17;

(b) total sports betting increased to a record high of $1.062 billion, representing a 15.3 per cent increase from the previous year;

(c) total race betting expenditure in Australia increased from $3.099 billion to $3.313 billion (a 6.9 per cent increase) in 2016-17; and

(d) $12.136 billion was emptied into poker machines by Australians in 2016-17.

2. Acknowledges that the 2010 Productivity Commission report into gambling found that around 4 per cent of the adult population plays poker machines at least weekly, and that 15 per cent of these players are ‘problem gamblers’ with their share of total spending on poker machines estimated to be between 40 and 60 per cent.

3. Acknowledges that according to figures released from the Australian Electoral Commission covering the 2017-18 financial year, the Australian Hotels Association of South Australia donated $324,944.43 to the South Australian Liberal Party of Australia (SA Division), the Federal Liberal Party of Australia, the South Australian Labor Party (SA Branch) and the Australian Conservatives.

4. Supports the call by the Alliance for Gambling Reform for a complete ban on political donations by licensed gambling operators.

Two weeks ago, the Australian Electoral Commission confirmed what SA-Best has long suspected. According to figures released from the AEC covering the 2017-18 financial year, the influential Australian Hotels Association of SA donated a whopping $324,944.43 to the SA Liberal Party, the federal Liberal Party, the SA Labor Party and the Australian Conservatives. That is a lot of cash by anyone's measure, and every South Australian should be incensed by these figures, which of course do not include the funds spent by the AHA in their own right in a bid to influence the election outcome.

The biggest recipients of the largesse of the poker machine dominated AHASA are the SA Labor and SA Liberal parties, which both received extremely generous donations. Being a sceptic, I wonder why—not. It proves beyond any doubt the power and influence these poker machine barons have over the major political parties. These powerful lobby groups do not donate hundreds of thousands of dollars for nothing; they do it to buy influence.

During the state election, both major parties, flush with funds thanks to this group of wealthy poker machine barons, aimed all their venom at SA-Best, not at each other, as you might expect, because we have a policy to reduce the scourge of poker machine addiction in this state. I remind both major parties that Australians lost nearly $24 billion in gambling in 2016-17, with poker machines continuing to outstrip all other forms of gambling, with a whopping $12.136 billion emptied into ravenous poker machines by Australians over the same period.

It is no surprise that poker machines are described as the 'crystal meth of gambling'. Here are some sobering, some might say sickening, facts to back that up. Australia has 20 per cent of the world's poker machines, yet only 0.3 per cent of the world's population. Australians lose more at gambling than any other nation, with $1,000 in per capita losses, mostly because of the prevalence and ferocious hunger of poker machines.

Poker machines are in the majority of the state's pubs and clubs, housed in 511 venues in South Australia, with a staggering 12,210 machines still taking money from South Australians. As of June 2017, there was an average of nine poker machines per 1,000 South Australian adults. Poker machines are concentrated in South Australia's most disadvantaged areas, with South Australians losing $680 million over 2016-17. We know from the Productivity Commission's report into gambling that 15 per cent of regular poker machine players are so-called 'problem gamblers'. It is these gambling addicts that provide the lion's share of profits to poker machine barons.

The Productivity Commission has also estimated that around 40 to 60 per cent of spending on poker machines comes from problem gamblers. We know these are conservative estimates that are now close to a decade old, yet the major parties are more than comfortable to take these donations, derived in large part from South Australians battling with gambling addiction.

This year marks a disgraceful anniversary. On 25 July, it will be 25 years since poker machines first arrived in South Australia. I wonder how the major parties will be celebrating on that day. One wonders just how many lives have been destroyed by poker machines during that time. I personally know, as I am sure many others do, of so many families that have been destroyed by the insidious glut of these blinking, ringing, ravenous machines.

Do the major parties stop to think about those who have lost everything, in many cases their own lives through suicide, while others have lost their health, their marriages, their families, their homes and/or personal wealth due to the poker machines, when they gleefully put out their hand to accept money from poker machine barons? Does it make any of us, of you, the least bit uncomfortable? It is shameful.

The Guardian recently reported that research published in the Drug and Alcohol Review, a peer reviewed medical journal, analysed publicly available donations to federal and state parties in the 10 years to June 2015 and found that Australia's tobacco, gambling and alcohol industries, which have donated $14 million to the major political parties, saw their donations spike during debates on alcohol tax and gambling law reform or immediately before elections, with the ultimate aim of buying immediate influence or building long-term relationships.

A similar trend is borne out by the AHA SA donations to both the SA Labor and Liberal parties in the lead-up to the 2018 state election. In the days leading up to the 17 March election, SA Liberals received $12,500 on 8 March and another $12,500 donation on 14 March from the AHA SA branch. The SA Labor Party received $12,500 on 23 February; $12,500 on 26 February; $12,500 on 1 March; $10,000 on 5 March and a separate donation of $12,500 on the same day; $6,000 on 9 March; and $4,000 on 14 March. You do the math. This kind of influence simply cannot continue.

The Alliance for Gambling Reform recently called for a complete ban on political donations by licensed gambling operators. The alliance said political donations from gambling operators showed 'blatant industry funding to manipulate state election outcomes in Tasmania and South Australia.' In Tasmania, the gambling lobby donated more than $500,000 to the Liberals to help them defeat Labor in the state's 2018 election and in doing so stymy plans to remove poker machines from the state's pubs and clubs. In that state, Labor faced an advertising blitz opposing the policy, including the claims that thousands of jobs would be lost in pubs and clubs around the state if the policy went ahead. All this was funded thanks to a massive donation to the Tasmanian Liberal Party by the AHA.

SA-Best similarly faced an advertising blitz with similar messaging during the 2018 state election thanks to the gambling lobby and its very deep pockets—exceptionally deep pockets—and, of course, generous donations to the major parties. It is shameful that last week the Tasmanian Labor Party abandoned its hardline gambling policy just 11 months from its election loss. We will not step back from ours. We are not beholden to the gambling lobby.

Tim Costello, director of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, has said Australia would not begin to tackle 'our world's worst levels of gambling harm' until political funding by licensed gambling operators was banned. He went further, and I quote:

What happened in Tasmania and South Australia in early 2018 was nothing short of disgraceful and now that we've seen the size of the pokies money that was poured into those campaigns, we need Labor and Liberal to agree to a complete ban on gambling donations similar to what they have done with tobacco.

SA-Best unequivocally supports the call by the Alliance for Gambling Reform for a complete ban on political donations by licensed gambling operators. In doing so, I call on the major parties to do what is morally right and stop taking money from gambling operators. How can they possibly be trusted by the South Australian people if they continue to take money from poker machine barons?

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.