Page 1896 - Week 05 - Thursday, 16 May 2019
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important to ensure that we continue to see a decrease in the number of poker machine authorisations available over time.
Another important aspect of this bill is the governance arrangements for the fund, which will be crucially important to its success. The bill requires the establishment of an advisory board of up to four members with relevant experience to make recommendations to the minister about payments to be made from the fund. I was pleased to see in Mr Stevens’s report his advice that the advisory board should consist of representatives from government, the club industry and the community, including someone with experience in gambling harm issues.
Having a voice of lived experience or an understanding of gambling harm at the table is important to shifting the way we approach these kinds of issues. Therefore, while the legislation does not go to this level of detail, I would encourage the minister to consider the value of including a person with experience in gambling harm issues on the advisory board.
It is also pleasing to see that the government has agreed to recommendation 5 of Mr Stevens’s report that requires that certain types of training be mandated for club directors within 12 months of appointment. Training will cover board member responsibilities and management and finance issues, as well as training on harm minimisation and the role of boards in overseeing the provision of responsible gambling services. Harm minimisation training is crucial to reducing gambling harm in clubs and it is appropriate that the cost of this training should be met out of the diversification support fund, a cost met jointly by the sector and government.
The Greens support this bill as an important component of the transition down to 4,000 poker machines in the territory. The establishment of the diversification support fund came out of an independent analysis and was informed by consultation with the club sector. It is a reasonable measure to encourage education, training and other diversification initiatives. At the same time, we know that there is more work to be done to tackle problem gambling and to reduce gambling harm.
As I have said in this place before, harm minimisation measures such as $1 bets and mandatory pre-commitment are also important parts of a suite of harm reduction approaches. These are changes the Greens will continue to advocate for as we work towards taking a public health, evidence-based approach to gaming policy. We are pleased to support this bill and look forward to seeing how the fund can support more clubs to diversify away from a reliance on poker machine revenue.
MR RAMSAY (Ginninderra—Attorney-General, Minister for the Arts and Cultural Events, Minister for Building Quality Improvement, Minister for Business and Regulatory Services and Minister for Seniors and Veterans) (6.44), in reply: I am pleased to close the debate on the Gaming Legislation Amendment Bill today. I thank Mr Parton and Mr Rattenbury for their contributions to the debate. I note again that Mr Parton has said today, as he said to me earlier in the week, “This is not the way that we would do it,” meaning the Canberra Liberals. I am pleased to agree with him on that. That is because the government takes very seriously the importance of the
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