The Tasmanian Greens party is bullying the state’s other opposition parties into laying out their policy position on pokies.
ABC News reported that the Greens have exerted extra pressure on members of the opposition after finding out that the Labor party is leaning towards watering down its position on gambling.
The Greens, if you’ll recall, are bent on removing poker machines and pubs and they will stop at nothing in order to make it possible – even to the point of bullying their colleagues in parliament.
Led by gambling scold MP Andrea Dawkins, the Greens are demanding that Labor show its hand as they already have the evidence that the latter will try to sit on the proposal to remove the pokies.
Dawkins was irked by Opposition Leader Rebecca White’s statement that the Labor is still in the consultation process and will not be able to finalize its policy until next year.
“I mean what sort of consultation could they possibly be leading, that all of the evidence to the Future Gaming Markets [Report] didn’t already elaborate on?” Dawkins asked, according to the news report.
In September, parliament reached a compromise that will let electronic gaming machines to continue to operate in pubs and clubs provided that there will be “significant” reduction in machine numbers.
The Sydney-based Farrell family operates all poker machines in Tasmania through their company Federal Group. When the company’s license expires in 2023, the government had expressed its plan to break the Federal monopoly and decrease the number of poker machines allowed in the state by 150.
Government spokesman Rene Hidding told Labor that it should stop dilly-dallying and give its position ASAP.
“And this is something Labor is going to be called out on; you can’t be small target if you’re the alternate government, you’re going to have to have policies,” Hidding said.
