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SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE: GAMBLING
Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. N. Xenophon: That the report of the committee on Gambling, tabled on 26 August 1998, be further noted.The Hon. SANDRA KANCK: As the first noting of this report occurred in a very contracted time frame towards the end of last August, I was not able to avail myself of the opportunity to speak to it, so I am pleased to take up that opportunity. I used to be one of the original wowsers. My grandfather was a Methodist Minister and my parents brought me up in the Methodist Church. I attended Sunday school and church every Sunday, the primary schoolgirls group known as Rays once a fortnight and graduated to the Methodist Youth Fellowship when I became a teenager. I taught Sunday school. I was a member of the church choir and I went on to become the church secretary.
The Hon. R.R. Roberts interjecting: The Hon. SANDRA KANCK: For those of you who do not know anything about Methodism, it did not have the seven deadly sins of Catholicism but, if it had an equivalent, it would have been what I call the four unforgivable faults of drinking, smoking, swearing and gambling.The majority of poker machines in this State are to be found in hotels. I was brought up to believe that hotels were dens of iniquity; that men who drank alcohol beat up their wives; and that women who drank alcohol were the lowest of the low. Even though I did not enter a hotel until I was more than 20 years old, as a child I could tell they were bad places. Particularly after the doors of the hotels closed at 6 o'clock, it was not uncommon to see a man stagger—not walk but stagger—out, and one always heard lots of shouting coming from the front bar. I certainly did not like the smell of stale beer, and occasionally outside the hotel I would see a drunk lying down or throwing up or perhaps a combination of both.
As Methodists we considered ourselves to be a cut above the Catholics because, not only did they tolerate drinking, they used real alcohol in their communion while we Methodists, knowing the evils of drink, used grape juice. Equally bad, the Catholics held bingo nights in their church hall to raise money for the church's activities. The logic of the anti-gambling stance of the Methodist Church was that the person who won the raffle was effectively stealing from all the other people who had purchased tickets, and it was a view that I accepted unquestioningly for many years—no matter that everyone who had bought a raffle ticket had done so willingly, knowing that the greater odds were against their winning.
This Methodist aversion to gambling extended to my parents' not allowing me to learn to play cards because playing cards could lead one to gambling. I learnt to ignore the Melbourne Cup with studied disdain, wondering what all the fuss was about. I still can remember in my early 20s buying a raffle ticket, I think from the St John Ambulance Association, and feeling a twinge of guilt, but I justified it in my mind on the basis that there was little chance I would win the raffle and, therefore, it was effectively a donation.
The Hon. P. Holloway interjecting:
The Hon. SANDRA KANCK: I probably would have because I would have felt so guilty. By the time I was 25, when for the first time I did win a raffle (which was a basket of groceries), I was pretty excited about it. It took many years to unravel the wowserism that had been stitched into my soul by my parents and the church. So, with that background, it will not surprise members to know that, had I been a member of Parliament at the time the decision was made to allow poker machines, I would have voted against it. From my own observations, poker machines do not provide anywhere near the social interactions that used to occur in bingo halls or at the races, and that is of some concern to me in a country where the concept of community is diminishing. Nevertheless, internet gambling is far more scary from the point of view of reducing social interaction.
541 The introduction of poker machines has brought gains to some people such as hoteliers, but I see that as being more a transfer of money and activity from one sector of the economy to another rather than the creation of real wealth. The decision was made that South Australia should have pokies, and there is no doubt that the Government of the day had good fiscal reasons to support that. In the political context, we all recognise that since the mid 1980s successive Federal Governments have been cutting financial assistance to the States. If we combine that with the problems associated with the State Bank debt, members can see that in the early 1990s the introduction of poker machines and the likely revenue to be gained for Treasury coffers would have been irresistible to the State Government. Parliament made the decision to allow the introduction of poker machines and, in the wash up, it is the Government that has become the bigger addict of poker machines in this State.
For my part, I am somewhat grateful that this revenue stream has become available, otherwise there would have been even more pressure to sell off State assets. It is worthwhile comparing the current campaigns against poker machines in South Australia and the alcohol prohibition campaigns which began in the late nineteenth century in the United States. At that time, the liquor industry was undoubtedly behaving irresponsibly. Hotels or saloons (as they were more commonly known) were very much the dens of iniquity that my parents wanted me to believe they were in the 1950s and 1960s. The saloon owners, in concert with the manufacturers of alcohol, were not averse to taking every last cent from their customers with resulting public drunkenness and the potential for violence and poverty for families. Prostitution was a common feature of many such establishments. So, it was not altogether surprising that public reaction emerged. By contrast, in South Australia in the 1990s, at least in relation to poker machines, the industry has been pre-emptive and pro-active. The industry has never pretended that there was not the potential for a downside. Anticipating adverse public reactions and some possible negative side effects of pokies, the Australian Hotels Association developed socially responsible policies and practices such as Smart Play that now lead the world. The hotel industry was responsible for setting up the Independent Gaming Corporation which works exceedingly well, funded by the hotels and not the taxpayer. Government could not have done it any better and might have done it worse. Last year, the AHA released an advertising code of practice for poker machines, yet another example of how the industry has set the example of how to deal with gambling.The industry has been taking the initiative, and it is the Government that has been dragging its heels in not ensuring that other gambling codes contribute their fair share. So, unlike the liquor industry in the United States last century, the owners and managers of hotels in South Australia have worked together to alleviate the potential downside which might result from the introduction of poker machines.
Gambling is etched deeply into the Australian psyche. Even with my anti-gambling family, when my brother and I were having an argument over a matter of fact, he would always use as the killer punch line, `How much do you want to bet?' to prove how sure he was of his viewpoint. We are a country that stops for a horse race, yet despite this I detect levels of paternalism and snobbery in the debate over poker machines.
If I spend $70 in one night to see a blockbuster show, no-one has a problem with that, but those in a position to do so look disdainfully on someone who spends $70 on a poker machine in the same time period. It seems that those who have the money can quite happily go to the races, spending hundreds of dollars on new outfits to impress the glitterati and to sip their champagne, but they, in turn, look down on those who spend their discretionary earnings on poker machines. I detect just a hint of class consciousness here.
As I mentioned, it is very useful to examine the alcohol prohibition campaign which operated in the United States late last century through to the early 1930s as a comparative political phenomenon. The Anti-Saloon League and the Women's Christian Temperance Union led very strong campaigns against the demon drink. Strangely, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, which some members might be aware is now a very straitlaced and conservative organisation, had a progressive social reform agenda at that time, including campaigning for women to have the right to vote. The Anti-Saloon League became extremely influential, convincing MPs from both the Republican and Democratic Parties to support a total prohibition on the manufacture, import or sale of alcohol. Ultimately, this lobby group became so powerful that it became virtually impossible for any politician to stand out against its views, and what had been a State by State enactment of laws became a blanket prohibition across the whole country. Although I cannot see the circumstances where gambling would be banned in South Australia, it is becoming increasingly difficult to deal with this issue rationally. Opponents of poker machines have had persuasion value far beyond the merits of their arguments, and this phenomenon is probably best illustrated by the legislation this Parliament dealt with late in 1997 in respect of poker machines in shopping centres. In a rush of blood to the head, and surprise, surprise, less than two months out from the State election, the Premier announced that the Government intended that no more licences would be issued for poker machines in suburban shopping centres and that the legislation would be retrospective to 17 August, the date of the Premier's media release.The reality was that he was responding to pressure from within one Liberal marginal seat where a tavern was proposed in a shopping centre. The Premier's move was poorly thought out, to say the least, singling out the suburbs and thus advantaging city locations. There was no sense of policy here, just reaction, and the retrospective nature of the legislation netted the then proposed Discovery Complex at the Marion Shopping Centre. The developers of this proposed eatery come function centre had always envisaged a gaming lounge as an essential part of the complex. It was nothing new and nothing had been hidden. They had been working on the project for three years and had gone through all the appropriate planning approval processes.
The Government has continually argued that developers in this State need to have certainty yet, despite its own protestations, five days after the application for a gaming licence had been lodged by the developers of the Discovery Complex the Government changed the rules by press release. Without going into great detail, because members were present at the time, fortunately enough MPs were willing to recognise the stupidity of the retrospective nature of this legislation, and they were willing to amend that part so the Discovery Complex was able to go ahead. John Olsen was wanting to show leadership when an examination of the circumstances reveals that he was dancing to the tune of the No Pokies campaign. So, as I said, there are certainly some comparisons with what happened with prohibition, and hopefully we can learn from it.
One of the more useful parts of that exercise is to look at the underlying agendas. It might come as a surprise to members to know that racism was one of the less stated reasons for the United States prohibition campaigns, given that the newly arrived migrants came from cultures where the drinking of alcohol was part of the way of life they brought with them. Another aspect of the campaign was the support from the industrialists who needed a reliable and sober work force. The public story was one of a campaign for morality, but for some of the prohibitionists there was a very different agenda.
During the period of prohibition another interesting vested interest campaign took place in the United States in relation to hemp. Hemp had long been a routine mainstay agricultural crop in the United States and it was particularly important in the manufacture of rope, but in the 1920s a strong campaign developed to associate its use with drug addiction. If members ever get an opportunity to see the old black and white movie Reefer Madness, they should take it up. The distorted view of the effects of the recreational use of hemp as a drug is just plain funny, with bulging eyeballs and Jekyll-and-Hyde personality transformations and raging sex orgies—quite the opposite to what we now know are the suppressive effects of marijuana. Nevertheless, one has to look at where the pressures were coming from to make the growing of hemp illegal. The Hon. Diana Laidlaw interjecting:The Hon. SANDRA KANCK: If the Minister has not worked out the connection, she has not been listening to what I have been saying. One of the most active campaigners was Pierre Du Pont of the Du Pont chemical company. At that time his company had only recently patented nylon, which the company directors perceived had great potential for the making of ropes. It is easy, using retrospective vision, to see that a campaign against the use of marijuana as a recreational drug could very well have the potential to be manipulated so that the growing of hemp in any form could be made illegal, and the greatest beneficiary of that result would have had to be the Du Pont chemical company.
542 Bringing us to the present so that the Minister understands, the Adelaide Advertiser has run many anti-pokies articles, particularly while Rupert Murdoch owned Sky Channel. Could it be that a vested interest was involved here? Mr Murdoch has now divested himself of Sky Channel, but last year I recall reading an article about the Murdoch empire and how Rupert was trying to take over Netscape. I do not know whether he finally managed that takeover, but given the amount of money that his company would likely make through internet gambling the editors of the Advertiser would have to ask themselves whether their continued stories that target poker machines could be construed as acting out of vested interest.
In Australia we did not have the same prohibition laws as the United States but we certainly experienced some of the accompanying `holier than thou' mentality. Resulting from that and only a step or two removed from prohibition, Australia had 6 o'clock closing and the resultant and aptly named 6 o'clock swill. It is interesting to recall those days so that we can reflect on the many positive changes that have occurred. Precisely because of those wowserish views which had permeated across the Pacific—
The Hon. Diana Laidlaw: Methodist views?
The Hon. SANDRA KANCK: It wasn't just Methodist, as I explained earlier. There were a lot of vested interests in pushing that. The Minister might like to look back to what I said earlier. Hotels were not allowed to trade after 6 p.m., and implicit in that rule was a belief that both the hotel staff and their customers would act irresponsibly given half a chance. That implicit distrust created some of the excesses. When workers had only half an hour or an hour to relax after work and enjoy their drinks, it was inevitable that this would lead to the drinking of a lot of alcohol in a short time with resulting drunkenness.
Front bars were often extremely raucous and boisterous venues and were definitely not a place one could take the family. Compare that to what we have now. I do not think I would be going too far to say that the alcohol industry has come of age and is exhibiting a great deal of sophistication in the process. Now we can buy cappuccino in a hotel, and in some you can purchase remarkably fine food. We have come a long way from the days when pubs were the source of immoral activities. Indeed, the marketing of wine in South Australia is strongly associated with the tourism industry. The wine industry and the hotels industry now demonstrate that they are in control and aware of the possible downsides of an industry based on the retailing of alcohol. It took 100 years to get it sorted out, but it was done and the lessons have been learnt. I see no reason why we cannot reach the same levels of maturity and sophistication with regard to gambling. Those working in the hotel industry, despite the fact that they have spent money upgrading their hotels and creating jobs as a consequence, are forced to justify the fact that they own, manage or work in places where poker machines are installed. These are ordinary business people who are conducting legal activities and who have found themselves portrayed almost as vampires.Last year I addressed the Women in Hotels Conference and made observations to those women similar to what I have made here tonight. I did not realise the impact that I had had, but I found out that evening when I attended the conference dinner that those simple observations and comparisons became the hot topic of conversation at the lunch that followed after I had left. Those women were very moved by the fact that someone understood them and that not every politician regarded them as pariahs. A number of them thanked me profusely that evening and at least one of them had tears in her eyes.
The Social Development Committee visited one hotel where the installation of poker machines had been the thing that had stopped it from going broke, and we were told that that hotel was not the only one. I get the impression that some people would have preferred these businesses to go bankrupt.
If we cast our minds back a couple of years we might remember the case of the Adelaide woman who held up a succession of delicatessens with a toy pistol in order to fund her gambling addiction, and she was sent to prison for her crime. The committee visited the prison to hear her story. Most people I speak to about her see her story as proof of the negative effects of poker machines. Yet very few people are aware that her addiction was not to pokies but to Keno, courtesy of your friendly local newsagent.
Much of the evidence to the Social Development Committee was of the doom and gloom variety, and one of the things I noticed while the committee was taking its evidence was how often witnesses spoke only of poker machines when the reference we were investigating was gambling in all its forms. When we are prepared to accept the simple view of poker machines themselves being to blame, we fail to recognise the needs and drives of the problem gamblers playing them.
As a society, we need to deal with the issues that fuel problem gambling, but we also must get this into perspective. Relationships Australia told the committee that all the people it counselled for gambling problems had an issue of unresolved grief. Surely we should be concentrating on providing support for people who suffer grief rather than making a scapegoat out of poker machines.
For a problem gambler, it is all too easy to sidestep personal responsibilities when there is a scapegoat. It is so much easier to claim `the devil made me do it', so much easier to blame the manufacturer of the machine for having flashing lights or the hotel for not having a clock on the wall above the machine, than for these people to accept their responsibilities. It is a fact that less than 2 per cent, perhaps it is even closer to 1 per cent, of people who gamble have a gambling problem. The rather obvious other side of the coin, but one that is rarely stated, is that more than 98 per cent of people who gamble do not have a problem. If one were to believe some of the hype of the anti-pokies campaigners, one would think that the figures were the other way around. If you rely on the media to inform you about gambling you could be forgiven for believing that our society is falling apart at the seams because of the introduction of poker machines.There are some genuine reasons to put pressure on the Government to make more money available for counselling of people who have a gambling problem and to ensure that the other gambling codes are contributing to those funds. However, some of the campaigns to prevent hotels from getting gaming machine licences are little more than hysteria.
Scapegoating gambling in general and poker machines in particular has consequences that are not necessarily for the best. When we scapegoat we ignore the impact of gambling problems that may be associated with the Lotteries Commission and other codes of gambling such as horseracing and the dogs. It allows us to ignore other economic factors that impact on society. It is so much easier to carp against poker machines and blame them for businesses collapsing, unemployment and families breaking up than it is to look at the systemic problems of our economy and the impact of globalisation.
The No. 2 Legislative Council candidate for the No Pokies team at the last State election, Bob Moran, claimed that his car sales business went bust because people were spending all their money on the pokies and had stopped buying cars. However, evidence about spending habits given to the committee did not support his claims, and I understand that the reason Bob Moran went broke was a gambling problem—his own—and that it was as a result not of the pokies but of the horses.
Using poker machines as a scapegoat allows those who are developing a gambling problem to become and remain victims and not own up to the part they have played in their own downfall. When the Social Development Committee began its inquiry into gambling, I was one member of the committee who began with a somewhat jaundiced view of what was happening, but as I heard the evidence I had to be prepared to change my mind.
One thing about which I am now convinced is that poker machines, although they might be boring, are not the source of all evil unless boredom has been declared a sin and no-one has told me about it. I find poker machines mind-numbingly boring. I would much rather spend my money on a good book and my time in reading it. But if others find it exciting, then it is a case of horses for courses. For the most part my gambling stops at the Parliament House internal footy tipping competition from which I have so far won the meagre amount of only $10 this year.
The Hon. J.F. Stefani interjecting:
The Hon. SANDRA KANCK: Some people have all the luck! Occasionally I buy a raffle ticket to support a charity, and I think most members in this place do the same. I found very valuable the process of listening to and reading the evidence given to the Social Development Committee. I became aware for the first time of the financial contribution that the Lotteries Commission makes to our State's hospitals. I also became aware of the tourism and, therefore, economic benefits of the annual Easter horseracing carnival at Oakbank and the jobs that exist in the thoroughbred racing and breeding industry in this State.
543 I spoke earlier about what I termed the four unforgivable faults of drinking, smoking, swearing and gambling. The only one of those four that I have not now tried is smoking. I was able to overcome a wowserish background when I saw the illogicality of some of the arguments presented to me as a child to convince me that these activities were morally bad. Similarly, at the outset of the Social Development Committee's inquiry I expected that I would be supporting a range of recommendations that would bring this industry to its knees, but when I heard and read the evidence I found that I had to shift ground. So much of the evidence which was critical of poker machines was anecdotal. This is not to downgrade the significance of gambling problems; I sympathise with the suffering of those who have developed a gambling problem and recognise that this suffering can extend to their family, just as in my comparative example of alcohol the families of alcoholics suffer. But, in the end, the evidence failed to convince me that poker machines were the source of all evil in society.
The Social Development Committee by definition gets the controversial topics, and this is just one of them. Prior to that we had a reference on HIV/AIDS, and right now we are dealing with a reference on voluntary euthanasia. Over a period of 13 months we heard evidence from 85 people and considered numerous written submissions. The Hon. Mr Nick Xenophon has said that he is disappointed in the committee's recommendations but, given the controversial and high profile nature of the issue, we were fortunate that we were able to produce a unanimous report. That is not to say we were totally agreed on everything, but there was nothing that made any of us feel that we should have dissenting reports or statements. There are some recommendations with which I strongly agree, such as the desirability of removing responsibility for the portfolio from the Treasurer, and the need for a code of advertising practice. There are others, such as the programming of a time lapse between a major pay-out and resumption of play on a poker machine which I am prepared to entertain but which I am not at all sure will make much difference. It really is up to the Government now to take appropriate action, such as the development of a code of advertising practice, which I regard as very important, given some very irresponsible advertising by the Lotteries Commission, but overall I believe that the Social Development Committee has presented a very balanced report. I support the motion.The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY secured the adjournment of the debate.