Ms ROSOL (Bass) – Honourable Speaker, I echo the words of the member for Clark, Mr Bayley, who began by saying that he took no pleasure in speaking to this no-confidence motion. I also take no pleasure in speaking to this no-confidence motion because to be debating a no‑confidence motion indicates that something has gone seriously wrong along the way somewhere. To have a no-confidence motion being brought forward means that there is serious doubt about the actions that have been taken by people in this government.
What has gone wrong here is the government has misled Tasmanians about the action it will take on mandatory pre-commitment cards. There are three layers going on here, probably many layers, but three layers I would like to draw out this evening. There is the matters of the no‑confidence motion specifically that refer to the misleading of Tasmanians. There is the damage of gambling and the gambling industry, and we know the effect that has on Tasmanians. That is another layer. There is also the power of the gaming industry and their lobbying, and the corruption that has led to in Tasmanian politics over many years. I would like to respond to each of those aspects.
Much of this has already been referred to, but we know that in 2018 the election was lost by Labor off the back of attempts to phase out poker machines in pubs and clubs. Since that time, Tasmanians have lost more than $1 billion on poker machines. We had an opportunity at that moment to turn things around, to phase out poker machines in pubs and clubs to help protect Tasmanians from the rapacious gaming industry and their need to make money off vulnerable Tasmanians. That opportunity was lost and since then $1 billion has been lost to poker machines.
The losses to poker machines in Tasmania continue to be enormous. In the last three months, since the beginning of this financial year, Tasmanians have lost $15 million to $16 million a month on poker machines. It is horrifying to think of so much money being lost. I know the gaming industry and the Tasmanian Hospitality Association would say that the introduction of mandatory precommitment cards is an expensive measure that is difficult to implement. However, I think it was estimated that the cost would be $10 million to implement the system. That $10 million sounds like a lot of money until you compare it to the amount of money being lost every month to gambling in Tasmania. That $10 million pales into insignificance when we think about $16 million every month.
We have a gambling industry that continues to make huge profits from Tasmania despite all the efforts to introduce reforms over many years. The scaremongering and protectionism of the pokies industry continues, and the industry has deep pockets. It has deep pockets because it is taking money from the pockets of Tasmanians and it uses that money to lobby and protect its own interests within our political system. The industry is effectively robbing vulnerable Tasmanians, using those profits to shore up its own interests within political parties and make sure its interests and needs are protected. Too bad about the impact this will have on the people of Tasmania who are suffering the impacts of problem gambling in a system designed to take their money, trick them and cause addiction.
The community impacts of gambling are well documented. We know there are significant impacts on the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, communities and society. The harms are diverse. They affect people’s resources, the money they have for the things they need. We have heard about the impact on children who are living in families where their parents are addicted to gambling and those children are missing out. We know relationships suffer due to gambling, and people’s health and mental health are deeply affected by gambling.
I have some statistics that were shared by community service organisations during the state election campaign. Tasmanians lose over half-a-million dollars a day in poker machines. That added up to $189.6 million lost in poker machines in 2022‑23, and 40 per cent of poker machine revenue is from people who are experiencing gambling harm. Research commissioned by the Tasmanian government a few years ago found that the majority of people in a pokies lounge at any time are likely to be clinically defined problem gamblers and that people experiencing negative impacts from their gambling account for about half of poker machine expenditure. In other words, pokie addicts are not just customers of Tasmania’s gambling industry: they are its core business.
Tasmanians contacting Gamblers’ Help increased by 33 per cent in 2022‑23 and of those people contacting Gamblers’ Help, four in five mainly used poker machines. We hear about the other forms of gambling and how, if we take away poker machines, people will go to the other forms of gambling. The evidence does not back that up, as we have seen in other research. Poker machines are the form of gambling most commonly linked to suicide, and people without a diagnosed gambling disorder accounted for over 95 per cent of gambling-related suicides.
This is a significant scourge in our community and our state, having significant effects on people, causing great damage. We cannot turn away from this and we cannot step back from evidence-based interventions that we know make a difference, that the research has clearly shown does make a difference.
The Premier had an opportunity to stand up for the people of Tasmania and resist the pressure of the gambling industry. The Premier had an opportunity to speak for the people of Tasmania and work for their interests, to demonstrate his care for the people not just with words but with action, by sticking to the commitment to implement the mandatory precommitment cards. This would have been significant action that would have kept Tasmanians safe. It would have protected them when they became addicted and found it difficult to make that choice for themselves.
We have had outlined here the history of the mandatory precommitment cards, starting in 2022 when Michael Ferguson, the then minister for finance, announced a policy for a mandatory pre-commitment card to reduce the harm caused by electronic gaming machines. We have heard from Mr Ferguson today that the policy had support across the parliament, across the House, from all sides. It was a good thing. It is still a good thing. It could be a good thing for Tasmanians. However, here we are today with an announcement from several ministers this morning that they are going to defer the introduction of these mandatory pre‑commitment cards. How disappointing. It is more than disappointing. It goes beyond disappointing, it goes to the Tasmanian people having been misled.
The Government has tried to tell us this morning that they did not say that they would implement mandatory card‑based gaming systems during the election campaign and that they had not misled Tasmanians. I have a copy of a media release from 16 February here. It says:
Importantly we also remain committed to harm minimization and will implement a mandatory card‑based gaming system for electronic gaming machines as soon as reasonably practicable. [TBC]
That is in writing. The government were at that point committing to implementing mandatory card‑based gaming systems. That is not that many months ago. The Greens have asked in parliament on a number of occasions whether the government still committed to this. They have hedged and they have tried to sidestep the question and tried to suggest that they are still committed to it.
Here today we have the evidence in the media release that the government are no longer committed to this mandatory pre‑commitment cards. This is a shameful decision on so many levels. It is shameful because of the gambling industry and the terrible impacts that it is having on Tasmanians, but it is also shameful because it goes against everything that the government, the Premier, that multiple ministers have said about the government’s commitment to doing this. People went to the election thinking that the government was going to introduce these cards and here we are a few months later hearing that that is actually not true, that the government is not going to introduce the cards. The only evidence‑based measure that we know causes reduction of people losing money, and helps them with gambling addictions – and yet they have walked away from it.
It has really been quite interesting listening to the debate today. I have not heard the government or speakers from the government really respond to the specific points of the Greens’ motion. They responded to the idea that they have not done anything wrong. They have suggested they have not done anything wrong, but they have not specifically outlined how they have not. They have said that this is about policy and a policy change. It is not really about a policy change when until a few weeks ago the Premier was still saying that he was committed to the mandatory pre‑commitment card. That is not a policy change.
The government has tried to say this is about personality, that we are attacking the personalities of people, we are attacking the personality of the Premier. It is not an attack on somebody’s personality to point out actions that they have taken, to point out things that they have said and then point out the way those things have changed. That is not a personality attack. That is just a statement of fact outlining the history of what has happened over the last few months, few years in Tasmania.
We have had this no-confidence motion, we have been given a connection between, ‘This will cause an election, we will have to go back to an election, the people of Tasmania do not want that’ – to me that just sounds like manipulative argument. It is like a threat to us. ‘If you bring a no-confidence motion, this will result in an election, that is a terrible thing’. It is totally acceptable and reasonable to bring a no-confidence motion to the floor of parliament when we consider that there have been actions taken that mean we cannot have any confidence in the Premier after he has done these things. We are not playing politics here, we are deeply concerned by the things that the Premier has said that he will do and then has turned around and now says he will not do. This has deceived the people of Tasmania.
To the final point about either of the layers I was talking about before, we have the content of the motion, we have the terrible gambling industry and the impacts it has on Tasmania. We also then have the corruption, the way that the gambling industry has been able to work its way into the major parties in Tasmania to influence their decisions. We have seen that happening this year. We have asked questions about it, we have asked specifically what has been offered to the Liberal Party in exchange for them stepping back from the commitment they made to introduce these cards. We have not been given an answer. We have been given slippery sideways steps and worming their way out of the question. It is very difficult to look at what has happened here and not to reach the conclusion that the gambling industry has a hold and continues to have a hold, has an unnatural, unhealthy influence on our government in Tasmania. That is unhealthy. It is unhealthy for democracy. It is unhealthy for the people of Tasmania. This no-confidence motion seeks to call that out, to draw attention to it, to say that this is not okay what has happened here, how can we trust the Premier when he has changed what he is saying from a few months ago, a few weeks ago, a few days ago to today with this announcement?
We make no apology for this no-confidence motion because it needs to be said that what has happened is not okay, and the people of Tasmania are the ones who are going to suffer because of this deferment, stepping back, moving away from something that could make a positive difference in people’s lives.
