Bradford Sue: Gambling Amendment Bill (No 2) — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBradford Sue: Gambling Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading[Sitting date: 22 August 2007. Volume:641;Page:11409. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE BRADFORD (Green): Three years ago in 2003 the Gambling Bill passed through this Parliament without Green Party support. At the time we believed that bill was a woefully inadequate response to the proliferation of harmful gambling opportunities in this country. I believe that the past 3 years have proved our analysis to be sadly correct.In that time pokies have continued to flourish particularly in our poorer communities. There are still over 21000 pokie machines operating in New Zealand and in some places their impact is particularly dire. For example recent figures show that Kawerau the district with the country’s lowest median income of just over $17000 a year has the dubious honour of spending the most on pokies per head of population. In just 3 months between April and June this year the 72 pokies in the Kawerau district took in $111 for each of the district’s nearly 7000 people—that is men women and children. If we take babies and children out of the equation and all those who do not gamble just imagine how much some people in Kawerau are pouring into those machines. Nearby Rotorua also a low-income area has the third-highest spend on pokies in the country. In Northland there are almost three times more pokie machinesper person than the national average. Kaitāia for example has 158 pokie machines per 10000 people which is way above the national average of 59.In districts like these and many others of a similar demographic a very few people are losing an enormous amount of money which is contributing hugely to the eternal cycle of debt and despair in which so many affected individuals and families subsist. Pokies continue to be the predominant source of gambling harm in New Zealand. That is no surprise given that these machines are deliberately designed by psychologists to addict people and that they are conveniently placed in our poorest districts to catch the most desperate amongst our population.At the same time it is clear we also have serious issues around what is happening in our casinos. News reports over the last few months have started to reveal the unexpected extent of criminality associated with life in at least two if not more of our major casinos particularly those in Christchurch and Auckland. Although the Green Party has welcomed belated recognition by the Department of Internal Affairs in two recent reports that organised crime money-laundering and loan sharking have a firm foothold inside our casinos we are really unhappy with the way the Minister of Internal Affairs seems so relaxed about what is happening and does not seem to realise the serious nature of what is going on there. He does not seem even to understand the illegal nature of some of the activity or that ongoing harm is being done to individuals their friends their families their employers and their communities for as long as he so calmly tolerates it. I wish that Mr Barker could open his ears and his eyes to some of the stories from the problem gamblers whose lives and whose families’ lives have been completely wrecked and that he could begin to comprehend the seriousness of the situation in which this country finds itself.The Green Party continues to call for a full public inquiry into the state of gambling in Aotearoa New Zealand as we believe that this is the only way victims of harmful casino and pokie-related activity can have the confidence to come forward confidentially and reveal what they know and be taken seriously without fear of reprisal. At the same time the Green Party believes that it is imperative that the scope of the Gambling Amendment Bill (No 2) before us today is substantially broadened. This bill could have been a heroic effort by the Government to deliver major reform to overcome some of the worst impacts of the gambling sector. Instead it is a series of what the Minister the Hon Rick Barker himself calls “technical amendments and … minor policy enhancements” and nothing else. Because on the face of it these new minor amendments are in themselves useful the Green Party will not be opposing the new bill at its first reading but we may well change our position to one of opposition to the bill if it is not subject to major changes during consideration by the select committee and the House.This bill provides us as responsible members of Parliament with an opportunity to institute major reform of the gambling industry in this country rather than just continuing to tinker around the edges. I do not accept the statements made by the Minister and Darien Fenton earlier in this debate tonight that a bill like this is not an appropriate vehicle for major reform. There is nothing to stop this Parliament from using it in this way if we have the will. I am sure we are going to see a large number of submissions encouraging us to do so.There are a number of additions and changes that the Green Party would like to see made to the Gambling Act through this amending bill. First of all the loophole regarding the requirement for territorial authorities to consult when reviewing policies needs to be closed. Currently local bodies can roll over their gambling policies indefinitely without any public consultation. This needs to be stopped. Second I believe we should be considering whether class 4 consents—that is consents forpokies—should last for an infinite period or whether they should have a set time period similar to liquor licences. Third councils should have the ability to place conditions on consents and not be limited as they are at present. Ultimately the Green Party believes that councils should have the power to determine whether there are any pokies in their district at all and not have to live with the current situation in which they are gravely restricted in the limits they can place on numbers and siting.Fourth the Gambling Act should promote the adoption of best practice in terms of harm prevention strategies. For example currently the Act does not allow the use of or even the trial use of new strategies such as pre-commit cards or player tracking systems. Consumer protection requirements including host responsibility should also be enhanced. Fifth we believe there should be disincentives against the gambling industry benefiting from problem gambling. Problem gamblers account for a disproportionate share of gambling revenue: over 25 percent of it comes from 1.2 percent of people—those gambling problems. Sixth distribution processes for gaming-machine funding should maximise community benefit and transparency and ensure equity in terms of its distribution. Although the Gambling Act made some reforms in this area we still have a long way to go.The Green Party believes that if we are going to allow the blight of pokie machines to exist in our communities the proceeds that go to community purposes should ideally be distributed through publicly accountable mechanisms like the Community Organisations Grants Scheme and the national and regional lotteries distribution committees rather than being allocated by the private pokie trusts. At the moment many community groups are held hostage by the fact that they receive funds from the pokie trusts to keep going. On top of this such groups are often trucked in to for example local body hearings in places like Kaikohe and Rotorua and many others to explain that pokies must continue in that district so that the local hospice rescue helicopter or sports club can be adequately funded.This is a sad indictment on the way in which parts of the community sector have themselves become addicted to pokies just as the individual players are. Even councils can fall prey to this addiction. For example it is ironic that the council in Rotorua has itself benefited from over $900000 in pokie grants—income derived from losses made by some of its poorest residents.As well the ability to prohibit and restrict Internet gambling needs to be revisited by this bill in the light of current international decisions and the existence of sites like RaceO NZ about which the Government seems unable or unwilling to take action.On 1 August this year the first set of figures from the Government’s electronic monitoring of gambling machines showed that spending on pokies increased by just under 5 percent between 2005-06 and 2006-07. This means that either the new electronic monitoring systems are spelling the end of scams and rorts that saw a portion of takings hidden by pokie providers or the gambling trusts have perhaps been less than fully honest in their recent lobbying of MPs and community organisations about their supposed decrease in takings and hence their reduced ability to fund community and sporting organisations. What is really going on with those trusts when in fact the proceeds are going up by 5 percent not declining?It is high time that the Government and this Parliament took a much stronger position on reducing the harm being done by gambling in this country. Ordinary people understand the problem. Just a few weeks ago around 7000 people in Manukau City made submissions to their council calling on it to adopt a sinking-lid policy on pokies in their district. They understand what is going on in South Auckland. They care. It is way past time that MPs and parties in this House—from all sides of the House—caught up with those people in South Auckland and took serious action to reverse theunacceptable social and economic costs that are being inflicted. This bill gives us an opportunity to do just that and I call on other parties and MPs here to join me.