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New Zealand – Harm Reduction Bill slammed by problem groups

By - 5 July 2013

Problem gambling groups are asking for the Gambling Harm Reduction Bill put forward in New Zealand by Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell to be scrapped.

The bill was back before the select committee in June with all its main provisions taken out or reduced.

The Salvation Army, Problem Gambling Foundation and Associate Professor Peter Adams from Auckland University’s school of population health are united in that they want the bill withdrawn after changes put forward at select committee stage.

They see the weakening of the Gambling Harm Reduction Bill as the latest signal that politicians support the interests of the gambling industry and its vested interests over the wellbeing of local communities.

The National Party did not agree with an initial proposal that 80 per cent of funds raised through should be distributed locally, claiming it would affect funding for some nationwide groups.

Salvation Army social policy spokesman, Major Campbell Roberts believes the Government’s latest proposals have nothing to do with minimising the damage done to communities by gambling.

“For those of us who deal with the problems created by pokie machines every day this bill, on balance, will make matters worse,” he explained. “The bill does give advantages to the gambling industry and gambling operators. It fails to address the fundamental flaws in the current system which have resulted in a long history of rorts, money flowing out of poor communities and excessive cost claims.’ The aim of the original bill to give councils and communities the power to reduce the number of pokie machines in their neighbourhoods, or eliminate them altogether, has been largely cancelled out. We see the damage done to families by gambling every day across the entire range of our social programmes, and it’s hard to see how politicians can justify continuing the carnage for the sake of a few vested interests.”

Doing away with the bill’s original intention of distributing 80 per cent of gambling machine proceeds to local communities fails to give local authorities more control over gambling operations that the original bill promised, Major Roberts reasoned.

He added that the announcement may provide a much-needed clean-up of the non-casino gambling sector’s conduct but it does not address the most glaring conflict of interests; providing grants to the racing industry.

He says the dilution of the Gambling Harm Reduction Bill has disturbing parallels with the so-called liquor law reforms last year that favoured the liquor industry over the wellbeing of communities.

“If the bill is indeed going to reduce gambling harm, as originally intended, then some courageous political leadership is now required,” he concluded.

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