29 October 2025
The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (17:00): I rise to indicate my support for this bill and in doing so I want, as other speakers have done, to recognise the leadership of the Hon. Connie Bonaros as she has often been a lone voice, with the support of the Greens, pushing on this issue. I recognise her long-term advocacy in this space over the eight years that she has been in this parliament.
Gambling is a real scourge on our society, and over the years I have had the opportunity to talk to constituents who have had their lives literally ruined by gambling and these addictive practices. It comes at a huge social cost to our community, so I think we have an obligation to do what we can to try to put more guardrails around this behaviour and to try to reduce the exposure of people in our community to gambling-related harm and addiction.
The bill the honourable member is bringing to a vote proposes to introduce a requirement that it be a condition of a casino or a gaming licence holder that gaming machines and automated table games have a precommitment system. The system proposed in the bill requires that there be a registered user, who will identify who is using the machine. It will set a yearly expenditure limit of no more than $20,000, and it will require the player to have a break of at least two minutes in every one-hour period. The bill also imposes a penalty for noncompliance of $35,000. I really welcome that. I think that certainly would be a positive advancement and one that would help a lot of South Australians at risk of problem gambling.
I note the comments made by the Hon. Nicola Centofanti, Leader of the Opposition, who indicated this is a piecemeal approach. I do not accept that. I think this is a circumstance where something is certainly better than the status quo, but also if one considers this within the suite of proposals that we are dealing with today, if one considers it within the context of the proposal to legislate the times in which gambling products, betting services and apps are not permitted to be advertised on television or radio, which I think is a really positive change as well, and if one considers it in the context of the proposal to restrict the operational hours of gaming machines and automated gaming tables between 2am and 8am, what we are dealing with is quite a comprehensive suite of measures.
I indicate that I will be supporting the Gambling Administration (Limitation on Advertising) Amendment Bill and the Statutes Amendment (Gambling—Opening Hours and Signage) Bill as well. I am mindful of your ruling, Mr President, but I am just indicating, as I am discussing the suite of measures in the context of the critique made by the Hon. Nicholas Centofanti, that I will be supporting those other bills as well.
This is an issue that I really want to continue to work on during my time in this place. The Greens are campaigning to axe pokies. We want to see them out of our pubs and clubs and recently I called for a commitment to phasing out pokies by 2030 and setting up a support package for those businesses. That is something I definitely want to continue to campaign on, but I certainly support these measures as a really important improvement on the status quo and commend the honourable member for putting them forward.