As we build up to the 2024 ACT election in October, Marisa Paterson MLA and Jeremy Hanson CSC, MLA will write a column each week covering different topics. This is the seventh instalment.

Marisa Paterson

Our local clubs play an important role in our community through the jobs they provide, their support of community sport, and generally being places where people and groups can gather and socialise.

However, clubs are reliant on revenue from poker machines. This revenue comes at a great cost to our community in the harm that is caused by gambling. For most of my working career, I have been advocating to see gambling harm reduced. I have seen the destruction of people’s lives and understand that there is more we could be doing to address this. This term, I introduced a bill to see that there are no poker machines in newly developed areas of the ACT, including Molonglo Valley in my electorate.

However, we need to go further. This is why I am really proud of ACT Labor’s comprehensive plan to see gambling harm reduced. A re-elected Labor Government is committed to seeing the number of machines in the ACT reduced to 1,000 by 2045. ACT Labor has a proven record of reducing machine numbers. Since 2015, we have reduced authorisations by more than 1,200 in the ACT. We are committed to seeing this continue. 

While the reduction in machine numbers is a long-term pathway to reducing harm, we recognise there needs to be measures put in place now. ACT Labor is committed to the implementation of mandatory cashless gaming in all ACT venues by 2026/27. This will include a range of harm-minimisation measures such as mandatory pre-commitment, mandatory breaks in play, and real-time activity statements. The introduction of cashless gaming will also see self-exclusion processes revolutionised in the ACT, along with ACT Labor’s commitment to explore third-party exclusions.

ACT Labor is committed to working with Canberra’s clubs through this long-term transition. A re-elected Labor Government will commission an independent inquiry to advise on the development and implementation of a community club transition plan. We will establish a diversification team in the ACT public service (2 FTE) to support clubs with planning processes, the calculation of lease variation charges prior to development, and support for site master planning as clubs divest.

ACT Labor’s practical and progressive plan will see the ACT lead the nation in proactively addressing the harm caused by gambling. A key part of this plan is to support clubs to transition and see a thriving club sector in the ACT.

Jeremy Hanson

You can’t believe Labor promises. How do you tell it’s an election year in Canberra? The grass gets mowed, and the potholes get filled.

There are also lots of promises being made by the ACT Labor/Greens Government in areas they have neglected for years and will neglect again after the election.

It’s one of the hallmarks of this government – saying one thing but doing another.

A quick glance at just some of the previous broken promises proves the point.

At just the last election, ACT Labor promised 400 new teachers and more support to the school system.

What we have is the worst teacher shortage in history. And while they say that’s not the government’s fault, note that the Report on Government Services shows real expenditure in public education has been cut, down by 3.3 per cent from 2010-11 to 2019-20.

The Education Union found 98 per cent of school leaders say staff shortages are undermining teachers’ ability to deliver high-quality education, and 97 per cent said that students are being disadvantaged and learning outcomes compromised.

For years, the Police Minister has been boasting about investments into ACT Police. The fact is, that a recent report showed that we had fewer police on the beat than we had ten years ago – despite the obvious increase in population.

The Treasurer is famous for promising surpluses in the budget – yet delivering deficit after deficit and skyrocketing debt. Thirteen deficits in a row must be a record for any Treasurer still in the job.

Or the stadium – ten years of promises, seven feasibility studies, and still no stadium in sight.

Then there was drugs. No matter how you feel about decriminalising drugs like heroin and meth – it is clearly a matter that should be put to the people before that change is made.

That is not what the government did. Labor deliberately hid their intention to decriminalise heroin and meth during the last election. Even the Greens admitted, “It’s something you might have mentioned.”

From schools to hospitals, budgets to safety, Labor’s track record shows they’ll promise you the world come election time. What they deliver is something else.