Roche Denise: Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Roche Denise: Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 09 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:2142. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DENISE ROCHE (Green) 
: 
 I rise to take the call for the Greens on the first reading of the Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill. Firstly let me say that I applaud the intent of this bill. I am pleased that all the speakers so far including the National members are supporting this bill through its first reading and through to the Commerce Committee.  
The Greens will be supporting this bill because it addresses many of the problems associated with pokie machines in the community in pubs and bars. It is totally appropriate that this is a bill from the Maori Party—kia ora Mr Flavell—as Maori and Pasifika are most likely to be harmed by this type of gambling. In my maiden speech I said that gambling on pokie machines was the transfer of wealth from women to men from the poor to the rich and from the brown to the white. When one looks at who loses the largest amount of money on pokies and who benefits the most from the proceeds this statement is clearly accurate.  
Pokies are the most harmful gambling product we have in New Zealand. A previous chief executive officer of the Problem Gambling Foundation once described them as the crack cocaine of the gambling industry and he is right. The industry itself preys on problem gamblers to ensure that it makes a profit and it whitewashes this harm by distributing some of that profit currently 37 percent to the community through grants. The industry is cynically selective. It targets the poorest communities. Look around Remuera. There are hardly any pokie bars at all. But in Manukau in Mangere and in Otara they are far more prevalent. Currently there are in excess of 18000 pokies in pubs and clubs in New Zealand and every single one of them creates at least one problem gambler and for every problem gambler there are between six and 12 others mostly children who are affected.  
We support the provisions in this bill that give more control to communities to reduce the number of pokies in their areas. In places like Nelson Christchurch Waitakere and Manukau communities have successfully lobbied their councils for a sinking-lid policy to gradually reduce the number of pokies in their areas. Whenever communities have been asked about this they have said they do not want pokies proliferating throughout their neighbourhood. I guess that is why in Auckland it is incredibly insulting that the huge effort that communities have put into reducing pokies has been undermined by the Government which wants to increase the number of pokies overall by selling our law so that the casino can have more pokies in exchange for the convention centre. Pokies in pubs pokies in casinos—they are both harmful and they are both dirty industries.  
We will also be supporting the provisions in this bill to reduce gambling harm with player tracking and pre-commit cards. We definitely support the measures to call for 80 percent of the money from pokies to be distributed to the community and within the community from where the pokie money has been extracted. We certainly agree that spending some of that money on horse racing stakes is not a community purpose and should be stopped.  
We are pleased to see an attempt to address the many rorts and frauds that have occurred over the distribution of funds from pokie trusts. Every week there is another dodgy deal outlined in the news and it is obvious that the Department of Internal Affairs has difficulty in investigating and prosecuting them. When even Francis Wevers who headed the Community Gaming Association says—as he did last year—that the entire industry cannot be trusted and is engaged in suspect activities then it is time to rein in the rorts and find a better way of controlling the flow of funds.  
We will be supporting this bill. However a word of warning. I have heard submissions on gambling policy at council level and I predict that the select committee will be confronted with an organised campaign from the gambling industry to water down the provisions of the bill. There is a lot of money at stake here. Over the last year $867 million was spent on machines in our communities. We look forward to this bill cleaning up the sector. We have done it around tobacco sponsorship. We have proven that we can do it. We can have healthy communities where our people are not addicted to pokies and our communities are not addicted to pokie money. Thank you.