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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 8 Hansard (24 August) . . Page.. 2268 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

Having said that, the commission argued that the current regulatory environment falls short of that ideal. It said that policies for gambling industries lack coherence; that they are complex, fragmented and often inconsistent. For example, it noted that governments are participants in, and promoters of, gambling activity while attempting also to reduce the social harms from gambling and that governments monitor the probity of gambling activity to protect consumers but neglect other important aspects of consumer protection such as informed consent.

The regulation of gambling in the ACT has an opportunity to bring coherence to gambling policies, to end the fragmentation and to address the inconsistencies. As everyone here knows, the Assembly Select Committee on Gambling has handed down its final report and recommendations of the social and economic impacts of gambling in the ACT. As members are aware, I was a member of that committee, along with my Assembly colleagues Trevor Kaine, who chaired the committee, Bill Wood and Dave Rugendyke. The committee found that problem gambling was an issue of concern in the ACT, with approximately 2,300 to 7,000 people identified as problem gamblers and approximately 10 to 15 other people affected by the activities of every problem gambler. The committee also found that poker machines attract the highest level of expenditure on gambling and that most of the adverse social and economic impacts of gambling appear to be associated with poker machines.

The committee was unanimous in its 28 recommendations. Most of the recommendations were aimed at ameliorating the adverse impacts of problem gambling in the ACT. The Productivity Commission draft report key findings vindicated and reinforced the select committee's findings.

My proposed amendments to the Gaming and Racing Control Bill go some way towards embedding the recommendations of the select committee on the role of the proposed Gaming and Racing Control Commission. These amendments have been made necessary because neither the Government's Bill nor its proposed amendments to the Bill reflect the main recommendations of the select committee. The Government's Bill as it stands does not address them adequately. In fact, it continues to give the Gaming and Racing Control Commission a role in development of gambling in the ACT.

I will speak in detail on the amendments as the debate proceeds, but I will briefly foreshadow them now. They include removing the function of the commission to develop gaming and racing in the Territory, defining the guiding principles of the commission to include monitoring and researching the social and economic impacts of gaming and of problem gambling in the ACT and to include funding services for problem gamblers. I also propose amendments to the membership of the commission to increase the ordinary members from three to four.

I also more clearly define the responsibilities of the commission to conduct research into problem gambling and I require the commission to develop a code of practice which will require it to develop guidelines which address harm minimisation, problem gambling and consumer information. I also give the commission a role in education, in commissioning and funding research, in counselling and in monitoring the provision of services to problem gamblers.

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