State Budget and Gaming Taxes - Private Members' Statements
Yesterday we heard the Government delight in spruiking its newfound generosity to those using our State's roads and railways. I would like to bring attention to another group celebrating this budget: the giant casino-like clubs dotted across the State, particularly in Western Sydney and regional New South Wales.
The budget showed that $1.133 billion in the last year was forgone by the policy of applying lower tax rates to clubs as opposed to pubs, up almost $100 million on the year prior. Yet again the State gave away more than $90 million in tax rebates through the failed ClubGrants scheme, allowing big clubs to reduce their tax on pokies profit by up to 1.85 per cent of the already meagre rate. What happens in reality? Clubs give money to allied organisations in opaque selection processes, providing them with taxpayer-funded public relations to justify their continued existence as so-called non-profits. Half of those rebates are given to clubs that rake in more than $20 million in pokies profits every year. Why are we paying for these clubs to reduce their tax liability?
Wherever you look in this city and in regional New South Wales, these giant pokie-driven monoliths are sucking money out of main streets and, in the process, killing local pubs, restaurants and music venues. It is one of the most glaring drivers of inequality in our society. I invite anyone unconvinced to look at the publicly available ranking of clubs by gaming machine profits and the local government areas they are in. I am talking about places that see anywhere from $30 million to $150 million in revenue every year from keeping the pokies on day and night and resemble casinos in everything but name. Of the top 50, six are in Fairfield, five in Canterbury Bankstown and three each in Blacktown, Campbelltown, Central Coast, Cumberland, Georges River and Penrith. On the other side, you have the billionaires made by the pokies. Justin Hemmes is one. Arthur Laundy, who now owns 2GB, which has such influence on Macquarie Street, is another.
The Minister for Gaming and Racing was handed a review into the ClubGrants scheme in February last year and has still not responded to it. The documents released earlier this year under my motion for an order for papers under Standing Order 52 show just how unserious the Government takes the issue of gambling reform, particularly with clubs. I have a clear message for the Government. It should end the cosy relationship with the club industry and properly tax the pokies. It is the only way to end the race to the bottom with reliance on pokies. It will revitalise our main streets and communities, and it will save lives.