Michael Ferguson,Minister for Finance
The Tasmanian majority Liberal Government has been completely open about reforming the gambling industry in this state while also supporting freedom of choice, minimising harm and backing jobs.
We took a clear policy to the 2018 election, a policy that Tasmanians overwhelmingly endorsed. The regulatory framework paper released for consultation this week remains entirely consistent with that policy.
In contrast, Rebecca White and Labor have gone missing on this issue, changing position depending on whether they are is sitting down with industry, or sitting down with the Greens.
Our policy includes a harm minimisation framework that is regarded as national best practice and under our new model, all venues will pay a Community Service Levy, effectively doubling the amount received to support community organisations and provide harm minimisation services – the CSL pool was $4.18 million in 2018-19.
Tasmania was among the first jurisdictions to introduce a comprehensive player exclusions system and to restrict maximum bet limits to $5 and the Tasmanian Government is also part of the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Consumer Protection Framework for online wagering.
The commitments of our policy have not changed since 2018 and we are now consulting on the detail of the regulatory model.
The Consultation Paper makes it clear that the draft Bill will be further consulted on once feedback on the regulatory model has been received, and we encourage Labor, the Greens and any concerned organisation or individual to contribute via submission.
