2025-04-17
Quotes attributable to Shane Rattenbury, Leader of the ACT Greens:
“Today’s announcement by Labor isn’t action, it’s delay disguised as progress.
“It is now six months since the election, and all we have is an announcement that a tender will take place sometime in the future–we have no actual tender, no chair of the inquiry, and no detailed terms of reference.
“Labor has not announced anything new today.
“Given that at the end of last term, all parties agreed that a review was needed, and we are now six months along from the election, it begs the question of what the delay is?
“The fact is Labor’s approach slows poker machine reductions by a staggering 40% as compared to the pace achieved by the Greens over the last seven years.
“When the Greens were in the driving seat of gambling reform, machines were being pulled out faster — now, under Labor, progress is slowing dramatically.
STATEMENT ENDS
Background: Between 2018 and 2025, the number of poker machine licences in the ACT will fall from 5000 to 3500, a rate of 214 per year.
These reductions were policy initiatives of the Greens that were included in the 2016 and 2020 Parliamentary Agreements.
Labor’s proposal to reduce the number of poker machines licences in the ACT to 1000 by 2045 will see the rate of reduction fall to 125 per year.