The pokies industry has controlled Tasmanian politicians for decades. After a brief reprieve, they’re moving to take back full control. More evidence has emerged today that the pokies lobby has both Liberal and Labor under their thumb, and there’s a serious potential conflict of interest in Finance Minister Jaensch’s office.
Michael Ferguson’s extraordinary words in the Mercury outline the influence of the pokies industry on politicians. For a man who’s never put a foot across the party line, Mr Ferguson has taken the extraordinary step of speaking up strongly against his Premier’s backflip on mandatory pre-commitment cards. Michael Ferguson understands just how powerful the pokies lobby are, and he can see them influencing government policy in real time. He’s called out the dishonest and self-interested arguments of “sectional interests” trying to unstitch nation-leading reforms.
It’s not just Jeremy Rockliff who is caving in. Rather than championing these precommitment reforms that will make such a huge difference to vulnerable Tasmanians, Labor Leader Dean Winter is parroting the talking points of the pokies industry. He’s pushing industry-backed ‘alternatives’ to precommitment, such as facial recognition technology, even though all evidence shows they won’t do anything to help 90% of gambling addicts.
Dean Winter says Labor’s policy hasn’t changed since 2021. That’s pretty disturbing, given 2021 was the year Labor did a secret deal with the pokies lobby promising not to do anything to hurt their profits. THA head Steve Old and his pokies mates must feel pretty smug he’s now got both the Liberal Premier and Labor Opposition Leader under their thumb.
Mr Winter also says his party is the only one that hasn’t changed its position, which is wrong. The Greens have always stood strong against the pokies lobby, which is why we backed in the Liberals’ promise for nation-leading precommitment reforms. At the heart of this issue are Tasmanians whose lives and livelihoods are being destroyed by poker machines, and the Greens will continue to fight for them.
To add to the alarm bells of pokies industry influence on politicians, we understand there is also a serious potential conflict of interest in Finance Minister Roger Jaensch’s office. Minister Jaensch is in charge of pokies policy, but one of his senior ministerial advisers is married to the head of the pokies lobby in Tasmania.
It’s astounding the Premier gave Roger Jaensch the Finance portfolio when this potential conflict of interest in his office would have been apparent. Just days ago after being contacted by the ABC, the Minister divested his shares in the hotel group that owns poker machines in Tasmania. Why he didn’t think he should also manage the other potential conflict is incredibly concerning.
We are deeply concerned about this potential conflict of interest, especially given the government has been completely secretive about it.
The Liberals are walking away from their promise to protect vulnerable Tasmanians with pokies reforms, and Labor have abandoned their previous stance against pokies, but the Greens won’t stop fighting against the impact of these predatory machines.
