ABC News 24 Afternoon Live – Gambling Reform
Transcript— 4:10 pm, Monday, 16 January 2012 — ABC News 24 Afternoon Live
E&OE
Kim Landers
Kevin Andrews, Andrew Wilkie says that these reforms are on track. What makes you suspect that there could be some changes looming.
Kevin Andrews
The Prime Minister was asked this morning did she remain committed to mandatory pre-commitment. And she refused to answer that question. She dodged the question. If she was in principle in favour of it, she could have said yes. If she was committed to a deal, she could have said yes. She said I’m not going to comment – so she has dodged the question.
Kim Landers
Isn’t it possible that a compromise might be emerging and that compromise might be this one dollar maximum bet idea that is favoured by the Greens?
Kevin Andrews
Well this was bad policy in the first place. This was a political deal stitched up by Julia Gillard to get her into the Lodge. There wasn’t the proper policy consideration of any of these proposals and now it is starting to unravel.
Kim Landers
Would the Opposition support a one dollar maximum bet limit?
Kevin Andrews
We have an inquiry at the moment through a taskforce which I’m Chairing. I’m not going to pre-empt the outcome of that taskforce but the question we must ask is will it work?
Kim Landers
Don’t you support the idea of a one dollar maximum bet in principle?
Kevin Andrews
The question we ask is will it work and what are the consequences? If it is simply means that people spend more time in gambling venues, gambling the same amount of money and it doesn’t work, well then we won’t be inclined to commit to it.
Kim Landers
Well the Greens are arguing that they would support it through the Senate and they want it, this sort of compromise, to emerge in the first half of this year, why not compromise perhaps this is the one idea that everyone could agree on?
Kevin Andrews
The Greens have had enough dumb policy ideas over the last few years for us to be suspicious of anything that the Greens put up. I think this is a case of where the Greens and the Independents are the tail that’s wagging the Julia Gillard dog or the Labor party dog once again. They’re running the show. It was interesting that Ms Gillard went to Hobart to see Andrew Wilkie about these matters. As I said this was a political compromise to make sure that Julia Gillard got into the Lodge. It wasn’t based on well thought out, good policy. We’ll consider these matters in our taskforce. But I am not going to pre-empt the outcome, except to say that if it won’t work then we won’t support it.
Kim Landers
Well when we talk about policy, I understand that one of the ideas that the Opposition is interested in is improved counselling, more counselling for people who are gambling addicts. And yet experts are saying that alone is not some sort of magic solution to this problem.
Kevin Andrews
We don’t believe that there is one simple silver bullet which will solve this problem like Mr Wilkie and the Greens seem to think. We’ve put a discussion paper out with a number of proposals. We recognise that poker machines are just one form of gambling. More and more people are using online gambling. Yet that’s not being addressed in any of these proposals. So rather than just have a willy-nilly approach which Wilkie and the Greens seem to have, we are going to look at this properly and when we have done so we’ll come out with our proposals.
Kim Landers
The Productivity Commission report released in the middle of last year recommended that each State and Territory Government implement some sort of pre-commitment scheme by 2016. It did point out that there are between about eight and one-hundred and sixty thousand adults who suffer severe problems as a result of their gambling addiction. Does the Opposition accept that some sort of compulsion by a Government entity, whether it is mandatory pre-commitment, whether it is a maximum one dollar bet may in fact be necessary?
Kevin Andrews
Well we accept, for example, that voluntary pre-commitment is being supported by everybody. We accept that everybody thinks that further education and counselling is a good idea. And a number of other proposals we have put in our discussion paper. But as I said, I’m not going to pre-empt the outcome other than to say that it has got to be able to work. If it doesn’t work then it is just bad policy.
Kim Landers
Kevin Andrews thank you very much for joining us this afternoon we appreciate it.
Kevin Andrews
Pleasure Kim.
[ends]
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