Members can’t sit on pokies fence

A couple of weeks ago in this paper l read a report that the Ellinbank Football Netball Club was applying for a license to operate 52 poker machines at Newmasons in Warragul.

Not only was l disgusted to first hear about it in the paper but appalled that every resident in the Baw Baw Shire who receives this newspaper read about it before the vast membership of the EFNC, including 51 life members.

Ellinbank has a very long and successful history and as past club historian what my father does not know, is not worth knowing. Winning its first premiership in 1926, if Ellinbank wins just two flags this year it will have amassed 100 premiership over all grades of football and netball.

This action by some within the membership, if successful, will have struck the club the biggest negative blow that it has seen in its 90 plus year history in terms of its integrity and standing within the local and broader community.

The responses through this paper clearly show this application has reached far and wide and will have ramifications to some decree in the future.

This club was born and founded on hard work and dedication of the farming locals who have spent 20, 30, 40, and up to 70 years giving tooth and nail to have a club that is self-funding through everyoe chipping in and doing your bit.

If this application succeeds then the name of the EFNC will be held responsible in contributing to paying 13 full time employees taking from the addicted and vulnerable $3.4 million dollars in the first year.

Shop traders in Warragul you should all be up in arms about this proposal. You say people are shopping out of town.

No they are shopping in town. But the money they are exchanging is not for goods.

How would you all like to share in the $17 million dollars lost on the pokies in Baw Baw alone this financial year.

Then there are families who bring some 130 of their junior aged children to play in one or more of the club’s eight under age football and netball teams.

What will their reaction be to a club that is promoting gambling as a way to support their kids good health activities?.

And then the 100 sponsors that gratefully give so that the club may graciously partake of the sponsors wares at a sometimes discounted rate.

Seven AFL clubs have pulled out from operating pokies venues and there are a number more that are in the process of doing so.

The Frankston Dolphins decided to get rid of their poker machines after the business went belly up and the administrator totaled up $700,000 in debts owing to three creditors.

Last Thursday l attended an information evening put on by the Victorian Local Governance Association in Warragul.

At this meeting there were three guest speakers who each spoke on the effects that gambling addiction has on the individual and those close by watching the fallout of the family unit and the destructive nature that this addiction causes.

Ellinbank unlike any other club in the EDFL is only a community not a town and a very strong one at that.

It has experienced the powerful successful era of the mid-fifties, the dominance of the eighties and the lows of the late nineties and two thousands.

All this was achieved with no help whatsoever from any “dirty” ill gained money. It came from within.

Generous farmers, self employed with time to spare to do the physical work, tradesmen who would give a day here or there for plumbing, electrical, carpentry, and business houses who thought it a privilege to be involved in such a great club.

Members and life members, you can no longer sit on the fence and watch this one pass you by. A seat on the fence is a vote for the pokies.

Your attendance at an information evening tonight (Tuesday) at 7.30pm after training is a must.

Bruce Pratt, Ellinbank

How do we reduce EGMs?

Like Lisa Benn (Gazette 16/7), Jim Connelly (23/7) and Michelle Ravesi’s (23/7), and other letter writers I am concerned to see an application for more Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs) in our area.

I can understand a sporting club wanting a way to make money as all the clubs I have been involved in have suffered from lack of funds for infrastructure development. Using the installation of gaming machines to raise funds might seem innovative, clever and a smart way to make big money.

But where does this windfall in funds really come from? As Michelle Ravesi mentioned much of it comes from the 5982 problem gamblers the Latrobe Community Health Service worked with last year. That does not include the problem gamblers who have not asked for help.

A significant number of these problem gamblers are part of family units that are dramatically affected by loss of income. I suspect only a minor proportion of these losses come from casual players who just want to have a “bit of a flutter”.

How many local businesses and organisations have had money stolen from them by people with gambling problems? I can name four off the top of my head, but I am sure there are many more.

Over $17 million was lost on the machines in the shire in the 2018-2019 year. The argument that only an additional $554,000 in losses will be caused by the additional Electronic Gaming Machines as the current losses of $17 million will be spread over the additional 52 machines.

The fund of $100,000 that to which the community can apply for grants sounds generous, but is a tiny proportion of the funds that will be generated if the application is approved.

These clubs who benefit from funds from EGMs will help contribute to demise of smaller clubs who can no longer compete against clubs with the improved facilities, and ability to provide incentives to attract top players, that these funds will bring.

I realised the shire was below our maximum allowed quantity of EGMs, but I was naively hoping it would stay that way. The argument should really be: how do we reduce (and not increase) the number of these machines?

Ian Haughton, Drouin

Abandon pokies

As a concerned Warragul resident, I am opposed to the introduction of poker machines at Newmason as a means of providing funds for the Ellinbank Football Netball Club.

Already there are more than adequate facilities in Warragul to gamble and adding further facilities can only add to the distress of persons who are unable to manage their gambling addiction.

Apparently it is being proposed that some of the funds raised will purchase and operate a bus to transport residents from local aged care facilities to Newmason to enable them to gamble on the poker machines.

These aged care facilities already provide transport for their residents to attend various activities in the area and if their residents, most of whom are on limited means wanted to go to the pokies then transport facilities are already available.

Better for the community in general if the Ellinbank Football Netball Club abandon their desire to raise money from gambling activities in Warragul.

Graham Behrendorff, Warragul

Life members shocked

What a shock to read about the EFNC’s submission to install 52 electronic gaming machines in the Newmason complex - a shock because reading the article was the first time we had heard about it.

As life members of the club with 143 years of voluntary experience between us, we are appalled the EFNC has decided to go down this slippery slope of using poker machine money to run our club.

The EFNC was founded by farmers with strong family values, principles and decency. We know that things change and we have seen many changes over the years, but principles and decency don’t change.

We have seen the articles about the $17m lost in Baw Baw Shire last year and the damage which pokies have on the welfare of the community.

Although we are proud to have been associated with the EFNC for so many years, we strongly oppose this action by the EFNC as we believe it is not in the best long-term interests of the club or the community.

Adie was recently interviewed by the television program The Local Footy Show and was asked how long he had been with the club. He replied 74 years, held multiple positions over that time, never received a cent and I would do it all again.

The strength of the club is not just about its finances, it’s about the sense of community within the club and the significant contribution made by everyone involved - players, officials, families and sponsors.

Football clubs, like everyone else, have to live within their means and we hope the EFNC will look at other avenues to secure the finances they need.

Val and Adie Pratt, Warragul.

Let’s fix the plane

Climate change is such a massive thing to get our heads around that it is easy to become overwhelmed by it. Some in our community want to deny its existence. Ninety-nine per cent of scientists agree that climate change does exist and that we can do something about reversing it, if we are prepared to act for the benefit of all rather than let selfinterest rue us.

I had the good fortune to be at a conference where a documentary maker was speaking about his latest venue (2040).

He has spent the last three years travelling the world to see how other countries, (developed and developing countries) are tackling the effects of climate change, and not destroying their economy in the process.

He used a fabulous analogy for climate change deniers. It goes like this. If you were about to board an airplane, for a trip, and 99 aircraft engineers told you not to, but one said he’d risk it, would you get on the plane?

Let’s not get our climate advice from the New York Stock Exchange, like some would have us do.

Let’s stay on the ground and ‘fix the plane’. What do we want our 2040 to be and what are we prepared to get involved in, to make it happen? Ann Humphries, Warragul

Stand deserves notice

A front-page article in the Pakenham Gazette (24/7) commended Member for Monash Russell Broadbent for publicly advocating acceptance of the New Zealand Government’s offer to resettle 150 refugees detained by Australia on Manus Island and Nauru.

It’s disappointing that the Warragul and Drouin Gazette has not reported Mr Broadbent’s politically courageous opposition to his own Coalition Government’s policy of indefinite detention.

Whether or not the government is right in thinking detention under inhospitable conditions beyond the reach of Australian law has been the determining factor in stemming the flow of boats, and whether or not that policy breaches international law, if its effectiveness depends on incarceration without limit, it’s morally indefensible in a civilised society.

That’s akin to the archaic sentence of imprisonment for the term of a natural life, or locking them up and throwing away the key. No policy, however important, should be allowed to trump a moral imperative of this magnitude.

These are people who’ve courageously risked their own lives to escape persecution elsewhere, and that alone suggests they are even more likely than most to become good citizens of a country giving them sanctuary.

If so, we’re not only infringing their human rights, but denying ourselves the benefits of their potential contributions to our society.

This is not a local issue, but surely a noteworthy stand by our local member deserves notice in the news pages of our local paper?

John Hart, Warragul

New street name?

I presume with the latest decision by Baw Baw Council that the one way stretch of Palmerston St will be renamed Frankies’ Lane. Bob Graham, Yarragon