Pokies provide us benefits too
POKER MACHINES
WITH all the negatives about pokies and the Farrell Group, let’s take time to look at some positives. Pokies will always be with us so it is better to have an operator who is Tasmanian than a mainlander or from overseas where any profits would leave the state. In other words, better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.
While the Farrell family has profited from pokies and other forms of gambling at its two casinos, so has the State Government. The family also owns the Advantage group of hotels across the state, has invested heavily in the tourism industry with hotel infrastructure such as the Henry Jones Art Hotel, Sapphire Resort at Coles Bay, MacQ1 in Hobart and the new motel venture at Port Arthur, operates the nationwide COPE Sensitive Freight and owns the 9/11 bottle shop chain.
All these businesses employ locals. Instead of attacking the Farrell family, we should be thanking them. There is no need for additional pokies in existing or new venues, there are enough now, the number could even be reduced. However opening the licensing process to all comers could see a new operator obtain the license who does not have an interest in Tasmania like the Farrells, only an interest in making money.
Break the cycle
I ATTENDED a forum discussing the impact of poker machine gambling on Tasmanian lives recently. The invited speakers were author and gambling researcher James Boyce and Anglicare’s Meg Webb. Many confronting statistics were presented.
One-third of Tasmanian people know someone with problem gambling and one sixth of those who play poker machines become problem gamblers. As little as four cents in each dollar lost goes to the community service levy to help those affected by gambling addiction. A massive 70c in each dollar lost in poker machines ends up in the coffers of Federal Hotels and the massively wealthy Farrell family. The impacts of gambling addiction are felt by individual people, families, communities and in small businesses, health services and policing and correctional services. James Boyce has written a page-turner book that details the sad history.
The answer to this mess is simpler than might be thought. Federal Hotels holds the single licence for all poker machines in pubs and clubs in Tasmania. This licence is due for renewal next year. Pubs and clubs take only six cents in the dollar lost into poker machines. The state budget is not heavily dependent on poker machine revenue, that is only about one per cent.
With a state election due in the coming months all that is required is a show of genuine commitment to the welfare of Tasmanian people. Ahead of the election a two-line letter from Premier Hodgman simply stating that the poker machine licence will not be renewed would do it. The nightmare would be over and a great legacy established.
Living off addiction
POLITICIANS and advisers who believe that drug testing New Start recipients will modify their behaviours fail, catastrophically, to understand the nature of ice addiction. For a start, the behaviour of ice A new way to have your say themercury.com.au readers have a new way to have their say. It’s free to use, just register and have your say. For more details and to register, visit the website. addicts has already been modified markedly by their addiction. That addicts will continue to use ice knowing it can (and has) cooked the brains of users, demonstrates this fact. If a politician who isn’t addicted to a drug wants to understand the true nature of addiction, they may want to try, if only for a moment, considering what it might be like to go without — if only for a day — the revenues generated by Australia’s ubiquitous poker machines.
Neighbourhood support
AS a supporter of Neighbourhood Houses, I struggled to make a connection between them and the article on the effectiveness of the Community Support Levy (CSL), which the Department of Health and Human Services distributes to reduce harm from gambling. The article ( Mercury, June 23) seemed to suggest that Neighbourhood Centres should be moved closer to gambling venues.
I found the Auditor-General’s report on the Tasmanian Audit Office website. The report does not suggest that any changes are required to existing Neighbourhood Houses. It does not suggest moving NH centres. The report supports the NH model and recommends that the department which oversees the CSL distribution look at the Neighbourhood Houses model. It seems to suggest that it would be a good thing if some community centres, which an one battling gambling addiction could use as an alternative to gambling, when required, be provided closer to gambling venues.
Kidding himself
THAT Eric Abetz thinks he is a part of the “sensible centre” shows how deluded those of his ideology are about the location of this “centre” from the political left to right.
Apology needed
HAVING spoken to people who operate in the international salmon farming industry, there’s one glaring omission from the CEO and chairman of Tassal in their Talking Point on July 10: an apology to HAC and Petuna for singlehandedly destroying Tasmania’s clean green salmon image in Europe. There’s always two sides to a story.
Tread our own path
WHY, oh why do we always have to follow the US to help them with their wars? No wars have ever been won. Perhaps we would be better off being neutral?
Fund more voices
AS journalism declines due to ad revenue going to Google and Facebook, it’s time for the Federal Government to set up a taxpayer funded independent Australian newspaper for unemployed journalists, or else we’ll eventually have to depend on the ABC and SBS alone.