Dilemma of removing pokies from RSL club
RSL Tasmania says only one of its subbranches still has pokie machines – but to remove them would also mean losing a full-time veterans’ advocate.
A panel of senior RSL Tasmania heads gave evidence on Wednesday before the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide hearings in Hobart.
The panel spoke at length about plans to establish “veterans’ hubs” in Hobart and Launceston – facilities that would provide services and outreach to veterans, while also generating income for the RSL by leasing out facilities and renting out accommodation.
Barry Quinn, RSL Tasmania’s state president, said only one sub-branch – out of 43 statewide – still had pokies.
However, he said because the subbranches were incororganisations, “we can’t dictate to them how they generate their income”.
John Hardy, RSL Tasmania’s chief executive, said the matter of funding the subbranches via pokies was “a difficult question”.
“We have very few when you think that we’ve got 43 subbranches. We’ve got one that does,” he said.
“However, it has to be said that one sub-branch also provides a full-time advocate on the funds raised.
“So if we take the pokie machines, get them all out, that’s fine, but what will be the downstream impact of that? Because now we’ve got one less advocate to deliver services.
“I know it’s not the perfect scenario.”
Mr Hardy added the “worst way” to get someone off an addiction was to go “cold turkey”, so “we have to think of other ways”.
He said providing mental health support for veterans was “really expensive” and that RSL Tasmania had a working deficit of about $125,000.
“Currently, we burn about $150,000 to $170,000 a year on providing these (veteran) services,” he said.
“We understand that most organisations are surviving off grants.
“It’s not the way forward, the grant machine, we’ve got to find a better way. We believe the veteran hub gives us a partial way.”
He said the project was based on a “hub and spoke” model, where the hubs were based in the two city centres, but had spokes delivering services in regional Tasmania.
According to its website, the Devonport RSL sub-branch operates poker machines. The royal commission hearing in Hobart is continuing.