Andrew spoke on the Government’s gambling reform bill. You can watch his speech or read an excerpt below:
“The government, with this bill, is betraying all of the people in this country with gambling addiction. With this bill, the government is betraying all of the people in this country who are judged to be at high risk of developing gambling addiction. With this bill, the government is betraying all of the loved ones of those people. With this bill the government is betraying the thousands of people who have suicided from gambling addiction and the untold number of people who love those people who suicided. With this bill the government is betraying the people who have had money stolen by gambling addicts. We know from research several years ago that in Victoria gambling addiction is the second-most prevalent cause of crime in that state after drug addiction. There are so many layers to this, and the government, supported by the opposition, is betraying all of those people.
Let’s remember, this is an intensely human story. The speeches today—and I’m guilty of this myself—have had lots of facts and figures and dates and numbers and dollars but let’s not forget this is an intensely human story. The human tragedy of this is difficult to do justice to. I’m sure that many of my colleagues have met with the sorts of people I’m describing—the people who are battling addiction, the people who have come out the other side, the families whose loved ones have an addiction; the families, the mums and dads, the brothers, the sister whose son or daughter or brother or sister has suicided.”