Pokies debate protest
ROBERT Kreshl knows only too well the harm poker machines can cause. After suffering a serious injury, he found himself blocking out the pain by chasing a win.
State parliament started debating the Liberals’ controversial gaming market reform legislation on Thursday – with debate expected to stretch long into the night.
Mr Kreshl was one of two dozen protesters who held a demonstration in front of Parliament House as the Bill was considered.
A gambling problem cost him his savings, his health and his home.
“I was totally hypnotised by the machines,” he said.
“When I was staring down the barrel of the machine, nothing else matters. There’s no pain in my leg, there’s no, no conscience in my head, or in my heart.
“It’s deliberately designed to hypnotise people who are vulnerable, anybody that’s suffering, a health injury of any sort, whether it be mental, emotional, physical, any sort of vulnerability, they’re vulnerable to being addicted to
the trance-like experience of being in front of the machine.
“I’d like to see all the machines gone.”
Labor took a similar policy to the 2018 election, and lost.
Premier Peter Gutwein said he was confident the legislation would pass the House of Assembly in the coming weeks.
“My expectation has always been that this will be concluded in the next sitting week but we’ll see how the debate goes,” he said.
The new laws include provisions to end the Federal Group’s long-held monopoly on poker machines. In parliament,
Finance Minister Michael Ferguson highlighted the government’s intention to consider enhances to harm minimisation measures.
Independent MP Kristie Johnston said the impact of gambling on Tasmanians like Mr Kreshl was often overlooked.
“They don’t want to talk about people, they just want to talk about figures,” she said.
“They want to talk about their pokie barons and the impact on tax rates and things like that. But they don’t want to talk about what happens to the mums and dads who get addicted to pokie machines.
“It is an absolute disgrace that they are trying to deny the very human face of pokie machine addiction in our community.”
Greens leader Cassy O’Connor condemned the reforms. “This Bill is the byproduct of institutional corruption. It is the quid pro quo for the gambling industry buying the 2018 state election for the Liberal Party.”
On Thursday night, only Ms O’Connor and fellow Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff, and independent Ms Johnston, voted against the Bill going to the second reading stage.