Wednesday, 14 August 2024

 Mathew HILAKARI (Point Cook) (10:21): I rise to speak on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee inquiry report Gambling and Liquor Regulation in Victoria: A Follow up of Three Auditor-General Reports. Firstly, I would just like to say where the process is up to on this report, which is that we have received a response from government. I would like to thank the minister who is at the table, the Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, for their response, because this really significant and important report has had 30 recommendations supported in full. I want to speak to a few of those that have been supported by the government and then will be acted upon.

The first one that I want to speak to is the community benefits scheme. This is a really important recommendation that was made by the committee, and it goes to the heart of an 8.33 per cent tax break which is given to clubs and other gaming organisations with the proviso that they spend this money on the community and to the community benefit. I had forgotten just how angry I was at how poorly this investment has been made by those clubs.

I will just run you through one of the clubs that I pulled off the website this morning. This club legitimately, I think, claimed about $70,000 of community benefits, but then they went on to claim $2.25 million more in what they say are community benefits. And what do they say these community benefits are? They say it is the salaries and wages of their staff. That is not a community benefit – the salaries and the wages. They say that the payment of superannuation, something that is required by law, is a community benefit. They say that their WorkCover fees are a community benefit. They say the accounting and auditing fees that they have for their own organisation are a community benefit. They say some accountant is providing benefits to the community broadly by making sure the books are correctly done at this club. They say that their advertising and promotions to make sure more people come and gamble at their venue are a community benefit. They say their bank charges are a community benefit. The fees that they pay to their banks are meant to be a community benefit. They say their subscriptions and their insurance are community benefits. Their light, heating and power and their security at their venue are supposedly a community benefit. Their local council rates of course are a community benefit, which requires the taxpayer to give them a tax break at their gambling venue. This is taxpayer money that would have otherwise been in the coffers of the state if not for their quite outrageous claims. They claim the telephone, the rent, their cleaning, the repairs and maintenance, their pest control and the removal of rubbish are community benefits. Really? They put a line item in here which I thought was a really cute one. It is about half a million dollars worth of their $2.25 million that they have claimed called ‘Bistro COGS’. For those in the know, that is cost of goods sold. So when they purchase a steak and they sell you that steak, when they purchase lettuce and sell you that lettuce on a plate and they take the profits, they say that is a community benefit. There is the Sky channel of course to show the races on the TVs in their clubs, and some clubs even claim the cost of the TVs; of course they do.

None of these are community benefits. They are for the private benefit of the club in the normal course of running their business. That is why it is so important that we review the community benefit scheme. I would say it should be scrapped, it should be gone, but at minimum they should be able to demonstrate genuine community benefits. I am talking about sponsoring local football teams. They do this at about a 5 per cent rate across the state at the moment; it should be 100 per cent of the funds going to local community organisations and to returned service personnel, some of whom we spoke about earlier this morning. I am so pleased that that has been supported by government and that we will be acting on reviewing that.

I also want to talk a little bit about the Libraries After Dark program, because many people said to this inquiry the reason they went to the pokies was because they did not have a safe, warm place to go to. So the Libraries After Dark program and Department of Health and other associated services have been supported.

Finally, I just want to mention one of the recommendations around advocating to the Commonwealth government about implementing advertising bans. It is pertinent at the moment with an incredible report by the now deceased Peta Murphy that should be taken up by the federal government. They should consider it properly and appropriately and support our community, who should be rid of the scourge of gambling.