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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-02-09 Daily Xml
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GAMING MACHINES

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:53): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Gambling a question about proposed changes to pokie rules and their potential effect on sporting clubs in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: In recent times there has been controversy in regard to the Gillard government accepting Independent MP Andrew Wilkie's desire to reform the pokies industry in Australia. The new minister would be aware that the notion of mandatory precommitment is particularly controversial and that sporting clubs and organisations, such as the South Australian National Football League, have recently registered their severe disapproval. These clubs and organisations fear the impact that reforms will have, and SANFL in particular has predicted job losses and indeed bankruptcy for some of its suburban clubs.

My question to the minister is: as the new gambling minister, does he support the Wilkie reforms, or does he support the idea of voluntary precommitment for each gambler, which will allow problem gamblers to limit their spending but not impact on industry and on recreational gamblers who do not have a gambling problem?

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for Gambling) (14:54): I thank the Hon. Mr Stephens for his question and, as he has indicated, there has been a lot of discussion, at the commonwealth level in particular, regarding gaming machines.

There are those in the federal parliament—and of course one of them would be well known to us, our former colleague, now Senator Xenophon—who have a great interest in gaming machines and, in particular, are committed to minimising the harm they do, or putting in place measures they believe are required to minimise the harm that may occur to problem gamblers and their families.

As the honourable member indicated, precommitment is probably the biggest issue being considered or talked about. There are various methods or ways in which such a system could be introduced, but as I understand it the basic notion involved is that precommitment would mean that gamblers have to decide in advance of starting to play a gaming machine how much they are prepared to lose, and potentially they would have only one card they would be able to use to do this, which they would use in any machine. It would be quite a different system to what is in place at the moment.

It is very important—and I am certainly committed as minister to ensuring—that problem gamblers are assisted and that whatever measures we can take to minimise the harm of problem gambling need to be considered. It is important that any measures we take are evidence based. We need to ensure that any decisions we make to introduce significant changes to the way gaming machines operate are based on evidence as to the change they will have in gambling behaviour.

That needs to be a balanced approach, because, while I do not see the attraction myself, gaming machines are something a lot of people in the community enjoy playing, and there is no doubt that there are employment and economic issues at stake in relation to the gaming machine industry. It is a complex issue that meets to be considered based on evidence and on the facts.

South Australia in particular is one of the few jurisdictions that exclusively continue to use coins. There is some suggestion that using coins is more effective than a card-based system, because it is real money and people cannot lose the money as quickly if they have a problem with gambling. That is the sort of thing that needs to be taken into account carefully and considered based on evidence and on what will be most effective.

I will seriously and thoughtfully consider what the commonwealth may propose. I understand there will be a ministerial council meeting bringing together the various relevant ministers, including those who oversee programs to assist problem gamblers. In some cases treasurers attend as well. I believe there will be a meeting of that ministerial council some time in February or March.

I will certainly carefully consider what the commonwealth has to put at that meeting, if indeed it puts a specific proposal, as to what it might mean for this state and in formulating the government's position. As I am sure members are aware, the commonwealth recently released an opinion from the Australian government solicitor indicating the heads of power under which the commonwealth parliament would have the power to legislate in relation to gaming machines in states.

It is definitely a live issue, and there are those within the federal government, the federal parliament in particular, who are very keen to progress some sort of change to the system that may involve precommitment or other significant changes to the system. South Australia will certainly carefully consider any proposition, taking into account those things I have mentioned—what will be the most effective, what is an evidence-based approach that will minimise the harm caused by problem gambling—and also be mindful of the employment and economic consequences of any change.

Ultimately we all want to see problem gambling minimised and that the harm done to families and people around a problem gambler—and we have all seen horrific examples of that—in such instances is minimised as much as possible.

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