Obfuscation in response to the Greens’ questions yesterday makes clear that you are walking away from the full set of pokies reforms recommended by the Tasmanian Liquor and Gaming Commission and accepted by your government. Last night, the House heard further information to reinforce this fact. You have requested the Department of State Growth to assess the impact of these critical measures on pokies venues and on your government’s tourism and hospitality plans and election promises.
The department has engaged Deloitte to do this work. Your intentions are clear, this is not something you do unless you are changing policy. You decided to walk away from one or more pillars of the mandatory pre-commitment card? How about some honesty, Premier? Are you ditching default loss limits, are you allowing more than one card per person, or is it that you are no longer going to make this system universal across all venues?
ANSWER
Honourable Speaker, I thank the member, Dr Woodruff, for her question and her great interest in this matter, as I have, of course. Our government remains committed to harm minimisation. We are working towards the implementation of a mandatory card-based system for electronic gaming machines. We are working with the monitoring operator, MaxGaming, to implement player card gaming, and we have acknowledged this is going to take longer than originally anticipated.
There are a number of issues to be worked through in implementing a brand-new state‑wide cashless player card system, and there are concerns around the economic impact and effect on jobs that we must consider.
The Tasmanian Liquor and Gaming Commission is currently undertaking public consultation to assist in the development of the system. The implementation of this nation leading technology is a complex task, as I believe I referred to yesterday, and in that context it is important that we get this right.
That is why, as part of our 2030 Strong Plan for Tasmania’s Future, we have committed to implementing a number of new poker machine harm reduction initiatives, including providing $100,000 to promote awareness of the Gambling Exclusion Scheme, which includes third party exclusion, examining the option of implementing automatic responsible gaming systems as part of gaming machine software for the detection of potential problem gambling behaviour in real time.
Engaging with venues interested in using facial recognition technology to help identify excluded persons, and requiring that responsible conduct of gambling training be undertaken by relevant employees every two years, instead of the current requirement for every five years. We will continue to work closely with the key stakeholders to implement these commitments, and remain committed to focus machine harm reduction, while providing opportunity for people to exercise their free choice.
You speak of the report. We requested advice from the Department of State Growth, which includes the Tourism Hospitality Unit, on the current government policies impact on the hospitality venues across the state, including tourism, hospitality, election commitments, the government’s electronic gaming machine existing policy, the government’s 2030 Visitor Economy Strategy commitments and regional events. With a majority of Dark Mofo taking a break this year, we are aware of the challenges currently being felt among some in the business in hospitality industry, which has been, of course, publicly spoken of
SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION
Dr WOODRUFF – A supplementary question, Speaker?
The SPEAKER – I will hear the supplementary question.
Dr WOODRUFF – I listened carefully. None of that list of things that you plan on doing include what I asked you about, which are the pre-commitment measures of default loss limits, one card per person, and a universal system across all venues. Do you remain committed to introducing those?
The SPEAKER – The Premier was given a bit of latitude, given the latitude of your introduction, but the question was actually quite specific at the end of that lengthy introduction about those three matters. I will call the Premier to the question.
Mr ROCKLIFF – Thank you for the question, Dr Woodruff. We remain committed to the policy that we put forward at the election.
Dr Woodruff – That is not commit to that, so that is a no, is it?
Mr ROCKLIFF – Well, no, look, I am sorry, but this is a complex matter. We will make decisions based on the information with which we are provided.
Dr Woodruff – Your policy of the election –
The SPEAKER – The Leader of the Greens will cease. This is the second interjection in 30 seconds
Mr ROCKLIFF – The policy at the election committed to mandatory card gaming, okay? Whether the industry sought my advice on the policy or Anglicare sought my advice on the policy, I pointed them to the media statement.
