Government should disclose gambling industry donations, “right now”, say the Greens

Why has the government slowly backed away from the state’s proposed nation leading pokies reforms? The Greens say we might find answers on the books, but donation reform is needed.

Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff speaks to the media on Parliament Lawns in Hobart on Thursday, October 17, 2024.

As fears grow that the state government may back away from promised nation-leading gambling reforms, transparency over the industry’s donations to the major parties is “crucial”, according to the Greens.

Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff was calling on the government, and the opposition, to make public any political donations received from gambling interests from the past 18 months, with the last publicly available data from prior to July 2023.

“We would expect the Liberal and Labor parties to both be honest with Tasmanians about whether they’ve got any money from the pokies industry,” Ms Woodruff said.

Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff speaks to the media on Parliament Lawns in Hobart on Thursday, October 17, 2024.

She said the pokies industry was “bullying” politicians into changing the reforms, and she was questioning why the parties had “gone soft” on proposed reforms intended to tackle gambling harm.

Former treasurer Michael Ferguson outlined the government’s plans to introduce mandatory precommitment cashless cards for electronic gaming machines as part of its response to the Tasmanian Liquor and Gaming Commission’s report into harm minimisation technologies in 2022.

Former treasurer Michael Ferguson. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

The cards were set to be implemented by December 2024, with mandatory loss limits of $100 per day, $500 per month and $5000 per year.

Since Mr Ferguson’s resignation from cabinet the government’s commitment to making the cards mandatory and statewide has been questioned and the government has commissioned a review into potential impacts on the hospitality industry.

“If there’s ‘nothing to see here’, the Liberals and Labor should have no problem coming clean with the community about this obvious matter of public interest,” Ms Woodruff said.

When state parliament returns, the Greens are set to introduce a draft bill reducing the threshold of declaring monetary donations from $5000 to $1000 but Ms Woodruff said there was nothing preventing the parties from being transparent about the political donations they are receiving “right now”.

A Liberal Party Tasmania spokesman said the party “discloses donation and donor data consistent with the law”.

The Tasmanian Labor Party was contacted for comment.

Ms Woodruff said Tasmania’s “archaic” donation laws meant we were lagging behind the rest of Australia, which have been slammed by experts as being “woefully inadequate”.

Originally published as Government should disclose gambling industry donations, “right now”, say the Greens