Mr BAYLEY (Clark) – Honourable Deputy Speaker, I rise to talk about some devastating poker machine losses that were published last week. In July 2026, $18.4 million was lost to poker machines across Tasmania. This is our state shame and it’s part of a national shame. This is the highest figure since July last year, which itself was the highest figure since 2020. We are getting record losses at the end of winters on poker machines.
I don’t need to remind the house how parasitic and addictive poker machines are. They are designed to win – win for the pokies barons, that is, and they are designed to addict. They cause a whole lot of harm in our community. That is well‑known and there are advocates that speak regularly about the personal harm caused by poker machines. But it’s not just the gamblers that are harmed. It causes increased crime, increased domestic violence, increased mental health problems and admissions to our hospitals. Pokies are an absolute scourge on our community.
The government committed to deliver mandatory card‑based play which would minimise the harm of poker machines, but the Premier has fundamentally walked away from that and left Treasurer Eric Abetz in charge of policy. Mr Abetz has announced a policy that the government’s own Liquor and Gaming Commission has said would make things worse. Mandatory card‑based play would boost the economy by $200 million, would create 200 jobs, would reduce crime, mental health problems and other negative impacts. Yet Treasurer Abetz has gone for a policy that his own experts, the Liquor and Gaming Commission, says would make things worse. This is a completely unacceptable situation for us, a state that already has some of the worst health and education outcomes. This is a scourge on our society that we must do something about.
