Former finance minister Michael Ferguson has hit out at the state’s hospitality association, accusing it of trying to undermine the cashless gaming card scheme he announced in 2022. In a newspaper column, the new backbencher says the integrity and backbone of every Tasmanian MP is under pressure, as speculation grows the government will eventually water down its nation-leading pokies reforms.
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00:00Two years after he promised the nation's first cashless gaming card.
00:07Mandatory pre-commitment that applies state-wide in Tasmania is the gold standard of harm minimisation
00:12measures.
00:13Michael Ferguson's making waves on the backbench.
00:17Warning the government is under serious pressure from the gaming lobby to ditch the card, with
00:22default loss limits of $5,000 a year.
00:26In a column in the Mercury newspaper he says Tasmania is at a political and moral crossroads
00:32where the integrity and backbone of every MP is under pressure.
00:36And he's not prepared to sit idly by and allow the genuine public interest to be defeated
00:41just to appease venues massively profiting from the misery of Tasmanian families.
00:46Ferguson has posed a challenge to all members of parliament, a moral challenge to resist
00:52the undue influence of sectional interests like the pokies industry.
00:57The Tasmanian Hospitality Association didn't respond, but hit out at Mr Ferguson earlier
01:03this week.
01:04He's said some things to us that didn't turn out to be true as well, so from our point
01:08of view we haven't been happy with him for a long time.
01:09Hopefully it will come out to a system that actually allows the venues to stay open because
01:13on some of the data we've got it will close up to half of our venues if the cashless card
01:16system went ahead.
01:19The pokies advocates fear the government will use a consultant's report to walk away
01:23from the default loss limits, or making the card mandatory.
01:28It's important that this government policy remains strong.
01:31We are asking the Premier that he commits to what was announced in 2022 with all of
01:36the card features.
01:38The government has been consistent all along, it is committed to harm minimisation, but
01:43we need to understand the impacts.
01:45Finance Minister Roger Yench, in charge of the cashless card and regulating the liquor
01:49and gaming industry, is facing questions about how he's managing a potential conflict of
01:54interest.
01:55Lisa Free, the wife of THA Chief Executive Steve Old, works in his office as an advisor.
02:01The government says systems are in place to manage perceived conflicts of interest.
02:06There is obviously the serious potential for conflict of interest here, information going
02:11both ways.
02:13That is not okay.
02:14A fight that's odds on to continue.