We’ll take on Labor: THA
HOSPITALITY chief Steve Old has teed off against the Labor Party and the Greens over poker machines as the anti-pokies lobby delivered an open letter to political leaders calling for their removal from pubs and clubs.
Responding to suggestions that members of Labor had raised a possible pokies buyback policy, Tasmanian Hospitality Association general manager Mr Old said his organisation would be happy to campaign against the party on the issue.
“What they are actually asking for — the Labor Party and the Greens — is to keep the [Federal Group] monopoly as it is,” he said. “We’ve said to the Labor Party that we’ve actually been pretty quiet on this whole process [but] I’ve got some of my members up in arms about this.
“We haven’t started our campaign about this but, if the Labor Party wants us to start a campaign in pubs and clubs to protect jobs in Tasmania, bring it on.
“We would like some honesty from the Labor Party and, as I said to its leader three days ago: ‘If you want to take us on, I wish you the very best of luck and we will know who will win the debate’.”
Labor leader Rebecca White said the party was committed to waiting for the release of the Joint Select Committee on Gambling Reform report before forming its policy.
“We’ve been talking with the industry; we’ve been talk- ing to the sector; we’ve been talking to key-non government sectors; we have been talking to everybody on the street. I don’t think that should be a surprise,” Ms White said.
Also yesterday, historian James Boyce — who has written a book on the rise of pokies in Tasmania — delivered an open letter signed by 75 businesses calling for Ms White and Premier Will Hodgman to remove the machines from pubs and clubs.
Dr Boyce said many who signed the letter were hospitality businesses. “What is absolutely clear from this is that they [the THA] are not representing the views of Tasmanian hotels, so we’ve got another voice now out there in the debate and, when the peak body claims to represent the hospitality industry, they do not consult their members,” he said.