Page 1674 - Week 05 - Thursday, 11 May 2017
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I agree with Mr Parton that it is a dying industry and that clubs do need to make that change which, in a way, makes all of last year’s political debate and the over-ventilation and the over-heating of that debate seem quite preposterous in the context of the change that is occurring in the industry anyway.
But putting all of that aside, all of the politics of 2016 aside, because that was conclusively resolved at the election—conclusively resolved—ClubsACT could not have thrown more money at or put more political effort into their campaign against me, the Labor Party and the Greens party than they did. The people of Canberra gave a conclusive verdict on that question. They gave a conclusive verdict on that question, Madam Assistant Speaker. It was front and centre in the election campaign.
The government will continue to pursue the agenda that we took to the election through our local community clubs policy. We will work with the industry and particularly with the new body that is being established out of the wreckage and the joke that is ClubsACT. We will work with the new body to implement our policies.
But today is not a debate about the future of the club industry. Today is a debate about some important harm minimisation measures that this Assembly appears to be unanimous in its support for. We should focus on that this morning. For that reason, the government will not support Mr Parton’s amendment but will be supporting Mr Rattenbury’s original motion. I commend it to the Assembly.
MR RAMSAY (Ginninderra—Attorney-General, Minister for Regulatory Services, Minister for the Arts and Community Events and Minister for Veterans and Seniors) (11.42): I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion relating to problem gambling and harm minimisation measures for gaming machines. I note Mr Parton’s concern with the increase of online problem gambling. It is a matter of agreement between us, and so I am pleased to draw to the attention of the Assembly that I have been part already of two national ministerial gatherings that seek to address that and have recently agreed on a number of measures to be in place across Australia. But that does not mean that we should not also be looking at electronic gaming machines here in the ACT.
I would like to inform the Assembly that phase 1 of the gaming machine reform package has been effective in its harm minimisation measures. The reforms to gaming machine laws which commenced in 2015 required that between 200 and 400 gaming machines be removed from operation at any one time, and currently there are 379 gaming machine authorisations not being used. We are, as Mr Parton, has acknowledged, doing something right.
But the ACT government also recognises that one person experiencing gambling harm is one too many, and the impacts are severe. The ACT gambling prevalence survey was undertaken in 2014 and involved responses from over 7,000 Canberrans. The data in the survey reflected that the number of people experiencing high levels of gambling harm in the Canberra community, as measured by the widely used problem gambling severity index, is 0.4 per cent of the population, or around 1,110 adults. While the majority of people are able to use gambling products without harm, there is clearly a
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