When the Rockliff Government ditched its commitment to the expert-recomended mandatory loss limit card for pokies, it said the policy was too costly.
15 months on, and the Liberals have repeatedly refused to tell Tasmanians what it would have cost to roll out this policy, including recently denying an RTI request and appeal from the Greens.
Now they’ve announced a suite of alternatives that won’t reduce pokies harm, and that look like they could be more expensive than the loss limit card too.
The government needs to come clean. How much was too much to pay for the loss limit card? And how much will their new policies cost?
These are simple questions that they should have the answers to. Given the huge community impacts associated with the government’s decisions on poker machines, the public obviously has a right to know the answers.
In the wake of last-week’s Deloitte report highlighting the benefits of real harm minimisation policy, there’s no excuse not to provide this basic information. Refusing to do so would be both gutless and wrong
