Parties trade blows over pokie report

THE State Government deliberately ignored a critical report on gambling before announcing its pro-pokies policy, Labor Treasury spokesman Scott Bacon says.

Mr Bacon said yesterday the Government had ignored the findings of the latest Social and Economic Impact Study of Gambling report.

“Not only did the Liberals lie about the existence of the report, it appears they deliberately ignored it before writing a policy that would lock in poker machine misery for another 25 years,” Mr Bacon said.

On Friday, a government spokesman said: “The study hasn’t been finished by the consultant and therefore is yet to be received by Government.”

On Saturday, however, Treasurer Peter Gutwein con- ceded the report by consultants Acil Allen had in fact been received by the Department of Treasury and Finance just before Christmas.

Mr Bacon said it was simply not believable that Treasury didn’t inform the Treasurer that the study had been received before Christmas.

He said the socio-economic report should have been a crucial part of the Government’s thinking on gaming policy.

“It’s now been confirmed that the Government had access to the most current evidence,” he said.

“The Liberal policy locks Tasmania into having thousands of poker machines in towns and suburbs until 2043, despite evidence of the enormous harm they do to families.

“As the Mercury editorial says today ‘the Hodgman Government has developed a reputation for secrecy when it suits’.”

In response, Mr Gutwein repeated a three-line statement from Saturday:

“I was informed this morning that the SEIS report was received by Treasury on the 22nd of December,” the statement said.

“Neither myself nor anyone in my office has seen the report and I have requested this morning to be briefed on it as soon as possible. Due to the significant public interest in this matter, I will release the report in full early next week.”