• 18 hours ago
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.

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