Hipkins Chris: Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is subject to correctionHipkins Chris: Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 07 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12500. Text is subject to correction.]CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka):I am going to take a very brief call on the Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill. I have to say that there is a certain sense of irony in that the Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill as this is called is now actually widely accepted outside of Parliament as in fact increasing harm associated with gambling rather than decreasing it. So perhaps we should spend quite a lot of time debating whether in fact the bill is appropriately titled because clearly it is not. Groups like the Salvation Army are arguing that—and this is a direct quote—“For those of us who deal with the problems created by pokie machinesevery day this bill on balance will make matters worse.” The Problem Gambling Foundation is saying: “I think what we are seeing is a proposed radical rewrite of the bill and I don’t think it will do a great deal for harm minimisation at all.” I could go on.I had some big concerns about the bill when it was first introduced. I thought it went too far in some areas and in fact there were concerns about whether the bill would even have been enforceable in the form that it was introduced. I had a lot of feedback from local authorities in my area for example which were saying that they did not really want the responsibility for the distribution of pokie machine proceeds. So the bill as introduced definitely needed a major change. What has happened though is that that major change has basically completely removed the bill’s original intent.There are a number of Supplementary Order Papers put forward by members that I will certainly support. The ones that I have some concern about and therefore will not be voting in favour of are those that specify a certain percentage of pokie machine proceeds that must be distributed within the geographical area from which they are taken. The reason that I am concerned about that is the potential effect that may have on national organisations. Actually there are a number of very very valuable genuinely charitable community organisations that do not necessarily work within a defined geographical area but in fact operate throughout the country.One of the concerns that I have is if you say—and it is a fair argument to make—that this money is taken out of this particular community and therefore should be invested back into the community. That is something that I strongly believe in but by saying that the only organisations that contribute back to that community are those that are based within that community is wrong because actually some of the—[Interruption ]—Trevor Mallard is suggesting that I put in a further amendment. Some of the organisations that contribute very positively to some low socio-economic communities for example might actually be based—have their head offices or whatever—in wealthier areas. That does not necessarily mean that they are not contributing. Well in fact in many many cases they are contributing very positively to other communities. I would hate to see an amendment passed in this Committee that would prevent the proceeds from pokie machines going into those organisations that are doing such valuable work. I am going to be voting against that set of amendments. There are a variety of them that have been put forward.Ultimately problem gambling has a big impact on many people in the community. It is a small group of problem gamblers who have a really really big problem but we need to be very mindful of the massive social harm that that causes and the ripple effect. So it might be a small group of people who actually have the problem with gambling but the effect of that problem gambling ripples out to a large number of people—their friends their family and their employers. It really does have a big impact in the community. So whenever we make decisions about gambling law and policy in this House we need to be very mindful of that. I think that there is going to be another debate coming up very shortly where we are going to be talking about problem gambling and the opportunity to increase problem gambling. That is the one that I am very much looking forward to debating.