Cashless gaming details need to be looked at carefully

It has been an interesting two weeks, getting out on the road again, talking to people, businesses and councils, getting updates on their concerns and letting them know what things I have been working on.

At the risk of sounding like a verse from a Slim Dusty song I’ve been to Nevertire, Tottenham, Tullamore, Condobolin, Tullibigeal, Lake Cargelligo, Cobar and Nyngan. Hopefully I’ll soon be out your way soon, stop and say hello if you see me.

Cashless gaming card

I am often being asked about my thoughts on the plan to introduce a cashless gaming card to deal with problem gambling and money laundering.

However, the government has only just passed the scheme by cabinet and the Premier has only just announced his plans – which includes a specific fund to help regional clubs implement the cashless technology (in the form of no-interest loans).

I agree that something definitely needs to be done about problem gambling and money laundering, but we will need to look carefully at the details, assess the merits of the scheme and consult with the communities in Barwon to see what the impact would be on those communities, and the venues that have to implement it. Then we can see where we go from there.

I have heard concerns from many small clubs out in the bush, where they don’t have the same amount of patrons, employees or gambling revenue coming through as big metropolitan clubs, about whether this reform is affordable for them to implement (even with the availability of no-interest loans).

Many are already struggling under increased insurance premiums and the need to meet other requirements of Liquor and Gaming laws, such as putting on extra security staff at live music events, although the government is also offering one-off grants to fund alternative revenue streams to pokies.

The cashless gaming card will also only treat one symptom of the problem, but not the root causes, it will not do anything to stop people turning to the multitude of other forms of gambling available. Something definitely needs to be done, but whatever party forms government they will need to make sure that their gambling reforms will have the desired impact on problem gambling, and money laundering, and not adversely affect other community members or the clubs and pubs.

Wet weather animal abundance

The wet weather has thrown up a few animal encounters for me over the last week or so. A friend showed me a video he took of thousands of yabbies crawling over rocks on the banks of the Macquarie River near Carinda on his property. They were also thick in the water, a result of all the rains and the swollen river.

Then, while driving through Nevertire on the Tottenham Road I saw thousands of tiny frogs hopping across the roadway, so many in fact that it was impossible not to run some of them over.

And then, while passing by Banar Lake, near Condobolin, I noticed a bit of a commotion at Banar Lake.

This lake, which can cover an area of 600 hectares, when it’s full, but it is not always full, like this, but like much of our lakes and river systems it was full of carp.

While the yabbies and the frogs are natives and their abundance a sign of excessively wet conditions, the introduced carp are a pest.

Estimates are that 90 per cent of the biomass in our system consists of carp. Some kind of incentive to remove bulk quantities of these carp would be helpful and if the herpes virus is certain not to hurt other species its use should be considered. Preferably sooner rather than later, given the amount of carp I saw in that lake.