Page 5772 - Week 18 - Tuesday, 10 December 1991
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I would ask you to note that, in particular on page 84, there is actually a reference to the Caldwell report and to the debate on the proposed casino in Canberra, noting that a community which legalises gambling has a responsibility to care for those it harms. I quite agree that the individual gambler harms himself. I, in times past, have harmed myself. But one has to be concerned about what happens to not only that person - and that is surely a problem, a problem which, by the way, often is not recognised by the very person who has the problem - but also that person's surrounds; all to do with his work and family and society. I believe that that is explained very well indeed in that excellent article.
I want also to draw the attention of members, as we think about this problem of excessive gambling, to a pamphlet which I picked up very recently while our Select Committee on Hospital Bed Numbers was visiting the New South Wales Health Department. I noticed that not only has Sir Laurence Street commented on these new social needs within New South Wales, but also the New South Wales Department of Health - if I may draw this to the attention of Mr Berry - is active in trying to deal with the problem of excessive gambling in New South Wales, and surely the culture of the ACT is not so different from that. I think that we can learn from our cousins and neighbours in New South Wales, as often is the case.
I hope to get copies of this pamphlet called, "Do you know someone whose gambling is out of control?". It gives treatment centres, including a number of hospitals, and there is, in Sydney, one of the main centres for the National Association of Gambling Studies and the centre for the treatment of people suffering from compulsive gambling. Furthermore, the branches of Gamblers Anonymous are very active in New South Wales. So, I ask that at this late stage we listen to Sir Laurence Street and that we observe the very considerable research that is at the back of the need for centres for compulsive gamblers. I commend this matter to the Assembly as a matter of public importance.
MR BERRY (Minister for Health and Minister for Sport) (3.17): This issue, of course, is a very important one for Dr Kinloch from a personal point of view. As is often the case with these matters, one can have a clearer view on the issue if one is personally affected, but at the same time one can have a view which might not suit the community as a whole because of that personal involvement.
The social impact study of the Civic section 19 redevelopment and casino recommended that a community-based counselling service for excessive gamblers be established, and that responsibility for research and data collection on the nature and problems of gambling in the ACT be assigned to an appropriate agency. The Assembly's Select Committee on the Establishment of a Casino, Mr Speaker, accepted these recommendations and itself recommended that:
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