Minister slaps down liquor and gaming authority after chair’s “rape and pillage” comments

Tensions between the Minns government and the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority have boiled over, with the Minister declaring ILGA is “not authorised” to make its own policy.

The authority that rules over NSW’s pubs and clubs has been ordered to stop putting “harm minimisation” above facilitating the “balanced development … of the gaming industry” when imposing new rules on poker machines.

In a series of blistering directives, Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris has ordered the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) to stop imposing arbitrary rules on pubs and clubs, declaring it is “not authorised” to make up its own policy positions.

Mr Harris has imposed the new “Ministerial directions” days after ILGA chair Caroline Lamb told the industry that it has “no social licence to rape and pillage the community”.

Following those comments, Mr Harris has declared that ILGA members, including Ms Lamb, “must not act in a way that casts doubt on the member’s ability … to act impartially and professionally”.

Among his new directions, Mr Harris has ordered ILGA to give “equal weight” to all objectives of the Gaming Machine act.

The Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority has been told it cannot create its own policy for venues’ poker machine licences

Those objectives include harm minimisation, responsible conduct, the “balanced development” of the gaming industry, and an overall reduction in pokies numbers.

“There is no provision in either Act that indicates a hierarchy of the objects and ILGA must not establish a hierarchy of its own,” he said.

“While due regard is to be had for the need to minimise gambling harm ... this is one of several considerations.

ILGA has increasingly been cracking down on the availability of pokies after midnight. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

“As there is no hierarchy to the objects within either Act, ILGA must give each of the objects equal weight.”

Mr Harris has also ordered ILGA to “consult the Minister” before assessing existing licence conditions, told the authority it is “not authorised to develop or impose” its own policy positions, and said ILGA cannot do its own research when considering conditions on pubs and clubs.

The Telegraph revealed last year that ILGA had been trying to stop people playing the pokies after midnight, warning venues that it could impose new restrictions “at any time,” and declaring there was an “increasing body of evidence” linking “late night gaming and gaming related harm”.

Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris. Picture: Christian Gilles / NewsWire

In recent months there has been a growing view among industry and government that ILGA was prioritising “harm minimisation” over all other considerations when considering applications to move poker machines between venues, or change operating hours.

Industry sources have told the Telegraph that ILGA’s approach was preventing an overall reduction in poker machine numbers, because pubs and clubs had become too scared to ask for changes in their licence conditions.

Transferring poker machines between venues is one of the main ways overall numbers are reduced; when poker machine entitlements are moved, one licence is forfeited for every three traded.
In a statement, an ILGA spokeswoman said the authority “considers all the objects of the legislation in its decision-making”.“ILGA does not create policy but operates within the context of government policy.”

Originally published as Minister slaps down liquor and gaming authority after chair’s “rape and pillage” comments