Jamie Briggs MP

Jamie Briggs is the Liberal MP for Mayo. Good morning Jamie Briggs.

JAMIE BRIGGS:

Good morning David Bevan.

BEVAN:

Amanda Rishworth is the Liberal MP for Kingston, good morning Amanda.

AMANDA RISHWORTH:

Good morning.

BEVAN:

And for people who aren’t familiar with Mayo and Kingston, Mayo is the federal electorate which stretches across most of the Fleurieu Peninsula and I think touches on the Lower Lakes, but also comes up into the Adelaide Hills and Kingston that is really the Southern suburbs of Adelaide, so everything from O’Halloran Hill south in terms of the burbs. These are two key electorates and we touch base with Briggs and Rishworth each Wednesday at around about this time to find out what is going on.

ABRAHAM:

Now Amanda Rishworth, the sort of issues with pokies and we have got the AFL and the NRL joining the fight now. The fate of your government, the minority government, the support of Andrew Wilkie hinges on this, where are you at on that?

RISHWORTH:

Well look we as a Government actually believed in tackling pokies in our last term of government that is why we set up the Productivity Commission to look at this issue and what the Productivity Commission said was that a pre-commitment scheme was an important part of that. Now the AFL have said that they will not be joining the advertising scare campaign, they have said that they are going to work with the Government to look at how we can implement these changes, but we believe these changes are really important. People lose, problem gamblers lose up to $21,000 a year and so I think it would be irresponsible of a government not to look at how we can tackle this issue and looking at pre-commitment as a technology that actually could have an impact and most probably will…

ABRAHAM:

You are not just looking at it, are you? You are locked into it, really.

RISHWORTH:

Well we are looking at how we will implement it. We are working with…

ABRAHAM:

Well you have to, otherwise Andrew Wilkie will walk.

RISHWORTH:

Well it was recommended from the Productivity Commission that this was a good, so we are looking at how we can…

ABRAHAM:

But there were many things recommended by the Productivity Commission that a government doesn’t hand cuffed itself to.

RISHWORTH:

Well look, we believe this is the right technology and that is why we are looking at how we will implement it and we are working with clubs, we are willing to work with anyone, who is willing to work with us about how to implement this, so we are committed to this, we believe it will make a difference and we believe it is the right thing to do to tackle problem gambling.

BEVAN:

Are the clubs in your area, that’s in the southern suburbs, coming to you and saying they are worried?

RISHWORTH:

Well look we have probably not as many clubs in South Australia, that have pokies as in other states and territories and I have a couple of clubs in my electorate that have raised issues with me, but I have also had problem gamblers come to me and say that something needs to be done, my life was ruined by this so look as a government we need to look at how we minimise the impact on problem gamblers, so I think that it is important technology that we should implement.

ABRAHAM:

Jamie Briggs, Liberal MP for Mayo. What’s the federal Liberal Party’s view on setting, effectively for people to set limits on how much money they can lose?

BRIGGS:

Well we are opposed to the mandatory aspect of it, we say that we are happy to see voluntary trials if people want to do it on a voluntary basis, but the mandatory component which was not a Labor Party election commitment and I would be interested if Amanda could point to where she said that the Labor Party has been committed to it, where they were committed to it prior to the last election. I suspect when they were committed to it was when Andrew Wilkie demanded it as part of his negotiations to allow them to get back into government. So that is again one of the problems here that this is yet another Labor Party broken promise that they didn’t make this commitment before the last election.

RISHWORTH:

Well that is not true at all Jamie.

BEVAN:

Jamie Briggs. Jamie Briggs, governments all the time do stuff that they didn’t talk about during the election campaign.

RISHWORTH:

Work Choices Jamie.

BEVAN:

The election campaign doesn’t lock you in to only doing the things that were promised there.

BRIGGS:

No that is true, but I think that is one of the reasons that people, particularly New South Wales were it is a much different culture. I agree with Amanda about that, the club culture in New South Wales is very strong and there is a lot of linkages between the sporting organisations and the clubs which support them and so that is why you have seen the heat and you have seen Amanda’s senior colleagues, like the Attorney General Robert McClelland out on the front pages of the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday expressing grave concern about it.

BEVAN:

Well Nigel has called to say that in WA the sporting clubs work fine without poker machines.

BRIGGS:

Well indeed, but this is, we are not talking about whether they work fine or not. What we are talking about here is a proposal on whether you should require everybody to make a pre-commitment prior to playing the poker machine. That is what we are talking about.

BEVAN:

What’s wrong with it?

BRIGGS:

Well…

BEVAN:

What is wrong with?

BRIGGS:

Well I think that people should take personal responsibility personally. I think… hang on, hang on you have asked a question. People should have the opportunity if they think there is a problem to take extra steps. And there should be gambling programs.

BEVAN:

So everyone has the right to blow all of there money?

BRIGGS:

Well David you can’t protect everyone from themselves all the time.

BEVAN:

But here is an idea to protect people who are vulnerable, they’re addicts.

BRIGGS:

There are a lot of ways to protect who are vulnerable and that is by using certain amounts of the revenue for gambling, for anti-gambling programs and I think that is done now and that can be improved always and Andrew Demetriou who expressed concern about this proposal the other day from the Chief Executive Officer of the AFL said exactly that, that there are better ways to address problem gambling.

ABRAHAM:

Amanda Rishworth, why stop at pokies, honestly? You can go to chemist shops in Adelaide now, where not only do they have scratchies but they are effectively lottery agencies. You go into a newsagent and some people just sit there compulsively playing scratchies and just piling up. There is no pre-commitment when you are at the races and people lose their shirts and there money on the punt. There is no pre-commitment at TAB.

BRIGGS:

Online gambling.

RISHWORTH:

Well look I actually think that we need to look at a whole range of different gambling, about how we best support people. But when it comes to pokies, pokies are quite, quite unique in terms of their reinforcement schedules, the way that they get people to continually be putting in money. Now if people still want to lose money, they are going to set really high limits. But to those people that have gone into a pokie venue with the idea that they would only like to lose this amount of money, then they can set those limits. And what will happen is when they reach that limit that will be a jolt for them to say actually, okay I have reached my limit, rather than lose track of the money they are spending. Pokies are a designed to be addictive, the reinforcement schedules, the noises, the fact you can’t see what time it is outside actually is all part of the addiction that allows people to get in and perhaps spend more money than they expected. So this is a sensible I think, a sensible way to actually allow people to set their own limits. There is no government revenue coming from this.

ABRAHAM:

So every person who goes to play a pokie every person, is that right?

BRIGGS:

Yeah, that’s right, it will be. That’s right, it’s every person.

RISHWORTH:

Well what we are looking at is people to set their limits before they start. Now there is some discussion about…

BRIGGS:

You are not looking at it. That’s what they will be required to do. Don’t spin the policy, the policy is that every single person.

RISHWORTH:

Hang on, let me finish. That there will be, there is some discussion about whether very low cost machines, one dollar machines, will be, whether or not they have the pre-commitment. But the large costs machines will have the pre-commitment; I mean some people can lose ten dollars a press on these pokie machines. That is a significant amount of money and I believe that with people that are vulnerable in our community. And you know if you have spoken to some of these people.

ABRAHAM:

Well we have.

RISHWORTH:

It’s quite serious.

ABRAHAM:

We have covered the issue very comprehensively, as have most of the media. But Amanda Rishworth, thank you for joining us this morning.

RISHWORTH:

Thank you.

ABRAHAM:

Labor MP for Kingston. Thank you to Jamie Briggs, Liberal MP for Mayo. We will let him get back to his ironing.