Gambling Reform

The Hon. C. BONAROS (15:04): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Attorney, representing the Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs, and the Attorney himself if he would like to answer it, a question about gambling reform legislation.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: On Tuesday of this week, the Victorian government introduced the Gambling Legislation Amendment (Pre-commitment and Carded Play) Bill 2024 into the state's Legislative Assembly. If that sounds familiar it should for good reason. The bill puts in place the transition from cash to carded play of poker machines, whilst mandating that gamblers set limits on how much they are willing to lose. This is what is known as a 'mandatory commitment scheme' and I am sure those of us who have been paying attention will have heard us speaking of it in this place.

The $1,000 maximum amount that an individual can put into a poker machine under the current laws would be slashed to $100 under the new legislation. This follows a bill that came into effect in September mandating the closure of gambling areas between 4am and 10am, outside of the Crown Casino. In introducing the bill, the Victorian gaming minister, Melissa Horne MP—the irony is not lost on me there—pointed to the fact that:

…[there are] less people than ever before but they're losing more than ever before and where people are losing the most money is in our lowest socioeconomic areas.

Given the quotes attributable to the Hon. Ms Horne could accurately be used to describe the landscape of gambling addiction and poker machines in our own state, my questions to the Attorney and/or the minister are:

1. Does the minister agree with Minister Horne's assessment in Victoria and its equal application here in South Australia?

2. When can we expect to see similar logic prevail here in South Australia?

3. Will the minister undertake to review its current position on mandatory pre-commitment in light of the Victorian legislation and announcement?

4. Does the minister now acknowledge that Victoria is not backtracking or reining in its previous election commitment, in fact, far from, they are pressing ahead with it in an even stronger form than what was previously proposed?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:07): I thank the member for her, I am gathering, last-minute invitation to answer the question myself; however, I will have to defer to my colleague the Hon. Andrea Michaels in the other place who has portfolio responsibility for these issues, but I will be most happy to bring an answer back.