Wednesday, 6 March 2024

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Gambling and Liquor Regulation in Victoria: A Follow up of Three Auditor-General Reports

Mathew HILAKARI (Point Cook) (10:22): I rise for the third time to talk on gambling and liquor regulation in Victoria. Just like Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, I too talk about the machines – not those that are sent back from the future to kill us but those that affect us and harm us in our community, which of course are electronic gaming machines. I speak particularly to recommendations ‍4 and 5, which review the purpose of the community benefits arrangements and the tax breaks –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Could the member just clarify which committee report?

Mathew HILAKARI: Certainly. The gambling and liquor regulation in Victoria Public Accounts and Estimates Committee report, a follow-up of three Auditor-General reports – and of course the 8.33 ‍per cent tax discount which is gained by these organisations, I would say very much unfairly. The reason that I say this is because the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission, who are doing an excellent job on behalf of Victorians, have a number of reports on their website which go to each of the organisations’ claims to get these 8.33 per cent tax breaks. What they do provide is a community benefit. That is what they are purported to provide, and that is why they get this discount.

I will bring up a few examples, which are randomly selected, but all of them go to the same point. The community benefits scheme that one club in particular claims is $1.4 million worth of community benefits which are given to our community, which would be fantastic if this were the case. Unfortunately, 98.4 per cent of those community benefits are benefits which accrue to the club only for their commercial benefits. The community benefits that they claim are being given are a million dollars in wages for people who have to open the doors of the club, prepare the meals at the club, serve the drinks at the club and assist gaming at the club. None of these are community benefits of course; these are benefits for a private club.

Not just wages are covered by this. WorkCover is covered by this, superannuation is covered by this ‍– things that are required by law to be paid. The rates and the taxes are covered by this – things that are required by law to be paid. They even go on to say that community benefits include their electricity bills, their gas bills and their insurance bills. And of the measly $22,000 this club says is for real community benefits out of this $1.4 million, $13,000 of that is taken up by greenkeeping fees – that is, mowing the lawns on golf courses, which they say is a big community benefit – and $9000, a rounding error, of that $1.4 million is for genuine community benefits, those of sponsorships of local clubs and room availability.

I go to another one: 98.8 per cent of the money that they say is for community benefits is in fact for club benefits – benefits for an organisation. Of the $617,000 claimed by them, $375,000 goes to wages. You might be surprised that the principal and interest on a bank loan is in fact a community benefit. Of course it is not. Of course this should be reviewed. They say that the bank charges that they have received, over $8000 of them, are a community benefit – of course they are not – and their cleaning, their repairs, their super, their wages, their WorkCover and their accounting and audit fees, which no doubt are taken off the federal government’s taxation rates as well. Another club – 96 per cent of what they say are community benefits are spent on wages and super and WorkCover.

This was a very important recommendation, one that I fully support and one that was fully supported by the entire committee made up of Greens, Nationals, Liberals and Labor. I look forward to the government responding to this review, because we are already taking huge steps in terms of gambling reform. In particular I congratulate the minister on the closing of all gaming venues except for Crown Casino between 4 am and 10 am. This will prevent the gaming of the system where people would successively close their gaming venues so there was 24-hour gaming in a community. I also congratulate the government on the Royal Commission into the Casino Operator and Licence and the subsequent bills that have come to this place and have been approved by this place to improve gambling regulation in this state. I look forward also to my fourth report on this report. Terminator 4 is Salvation, so I look for salvation in this house.