‘Can’t keep looking the other way’: NSW Labor votes for historic pokies reforms

The state’s gaming minister has supported adopting a strict anti-poker machine crackdown in the strongest indication yet that the state government will act on the concerns of rank and file Labor members. Senior Labor Party figures gave blistering assessments of NSW politics “looking the other way” and bowing to pressure from powerful lobby groups to maintain the status quo on poker machines at the NSW Labor conference on Sunday. The proposal brought by Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne and Unions NSW’s Mark Morey puts a moratorium on new machine licences, creates a new tax on clubs that raise more than $20 million in gaming revenue and commits to halving machine numbers in 10 years.

“(For) too long, the suffering caused by gaming machines has been allowed to fester and spread,” Byrne said. “Too long, the private interests of the poker machine lobby have trumped the public interest of preventing addiction and harm, but on this day at this conference for our party, this was a calamity that can no longer be ignored because the scale of the crisis has become obscene.” Gaming minister David Harris told the conference the motion was a road-map that reflected the best of the Labor movement, his strongest yet support for the tough measures and the clearest indication yet the government will implement the policy.

The state government isn’t bound to legislate the policies passed at state conferences but would face a major union and member backlash if the measures went ignored. “[The motion] is about lasting structural reform,” Harris said. “It puts harm minimisation at the heart of our gaming system, expands support for those experiencing gambling harm, strengthens prevention and ensures accountability is built into the system, not borne by those it has failed.”

The policy would also eliminate perks such as free food for punters and make facial recognition technology mandatory in all gaming rooms. The motion was passed unanimously. The government will work on engaging stakeholders between now and the March state election.

The government is also yet to respond to the findings of an independent report on gambling reform. While Labor members presented a united front on pokie reforms, members of Left and Right factions clashed on the government’s controversial protest reforms. Angus McFarland of the Australian Services Union NSW and ACT moved to bring a debate forward about protest laws, telling Labor’s rank and file that scenes at a pro-Palestine protest at Town Hall in February was evidence the government’s crackdown was not working.

“Whatever your views are on the issues being protested, I don’t think anyone could look at those scenes and honestly conclude that that reflects the kind of social cohesion that we should aspire to,” he said. Road Minister Jenny Aitchison, of the Right faction, rebuffed the attempt at moving the debate as a “disgrace” and accused members of the Left of attempting to silence the bush by prioritising protest issues over the Country Labor items. The motion ultimately failed.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese received a hero’s welcome from all but a handful of pro-Palestine members, who unfurled flags in protest during his speech. One woman marched through the conference floor draped in a Palestine flag but remained silent and Albanese’s speech was not interrupted. He used his address to fire back at “barely coherent” backlash to his government’s tax reforms and labelled the Coalition and One Nation the “axis of grievance”.

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