Gambling in NSW: Good news (Russell Crowe) and Bad news (Keno) today

Gambling is a huge problem in Australia. Today I was pleased to hear some Good News and Bad News about gambling.  First the Bad News:

Bad News

The NSW State Government has approved the introduction of Keno, a lottery game, into hotels (pubs).  This, despite the previous Premier saying just two years ago "no more  gambling".  Of course the Government gets more money in taxes, as well as money donated to the Labor Party.  (SMH, ABC, ABC)

It is additionally disappointing that Kevin Rudd (Federal Labor Leader) has said that it is necessary for the States to do this in the short-term for the taxes gathered. (SMH)

Good News

Three cheers for Russell Crowe and co-owner of the South Sydney Leagues Club, Peter Holmes a Court, for proposing to do away with pokies in the Club!  They intend to pursue the revenu epreviously raised from gambling (about $7 million per year) from other sources.  That proposal has yet to be approved by the Club Board and Members, but Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court are to be congratulated for attempting to revise the perceptions of how to raise revenue, to do away with gambling. (SMH)

 

Google Australia launches election site

Australians can access a bevy of information about the 2007 Election from this page set up by Google Australia:

http://www.google.com.au/election2007/

From there you can:

• View electorate information on Google Maps
• See YouTube videos produced by each of the political parties
• Read news about the election, including news customized for each electorate
• Review what MPs are saying
• Review election trends

This election has been a unique one already for Australia with the amount of videos released via YouTube, and web sites being used to disseminate information.  This colleciont of information by Google helps expand that.

 

Phone and internet browsing tracking laws being sought

Up until now security agencies in Australia must obtain a warrant from a judge to track people via their mobile phones or to monitor internet browsing.  Under the guise of "counter-terrorism measures" legislation is going before the Senate this week to enable security agencies (ASIO and Federal and State Police) to do that without a warrant, even for relatively minor criminal investigations.  That would apply to all telecommunications data.

If this were to go ahead, the privacy and rights of the majority of individuals would be eroded, with the potential for abuse of that information increasing, without some level of accountability to the judicial system.  It would seem that the risk far outweighs the potential benefits of such legislation.

SMH

 

Gambling in Australia: 21% of the world’s poker machines are in Australia

This morning on the way to work I heard on ABC radio (702) an interview with Tim Costello (World Vision Australia Chief Executive) about gambling in Australia.  I hadn’t realized the extent of the gambling problem in Australia.  Here are some figures he quoted:

• 21% of the world’s pokie machines in Australia: totally disproportionate for the size of our population.
• 11-15% of States Government fundings come from gambling.  They won’t exactly be motivate to reduce gambling will they?

I thought I’d look around for some more statistics, and am stunned by what I have found:

• In 1999-2000, the total gambling expenditure was $13.34 billion.  To get an idea of how big a number that is, at the same time, the total Tasmanian GDP was $11.6 billion, and the national fuel excise collected was $12.7 billion. (http://www.spinneypress.com.au/153_book_desc.html)
• By 2003-2004, the total gambling expenditure had increased to $16.21 billion. (http://gambling.anu.edu.au/menu/PDFs/factsheets2005/FactsheetAUSF&I05-Final.pdf).
• In the period of 1993-1994 to 2003-2004 there was an average annual increase of over 5.6% (http://gambling.anu.edu.au/menu/PDFs/factsheets2005/FactsheetAUSF&I05-Final.pdf).
• The greatest spending was by adults in the Northern Territory, at 4.8% of the Household Disposable Income (http://gambling.anu.edu.au/menu/PDFs/factsheets2005/FactsheetAUSF&I05-Final.pdf)
• Even back 1999 2.1% of the Australian population had a serious gamblin problem.  And then for every one of those, statistics also show that about another 7 people are personally impacted as a result of the actions of those people. (http://www.relationships.com.au/what-we-do/services/problem-gambling)
• On the Central Coast of NSW Problem Gambling web site, they say: "New South Wales has over 95,000 poker machines, that’s half of the machines in Australia and one tenth of the machines in the world. New South Wales clubs and hotels make around 3.5 billion each year on gaming machines while the Australian casinos have an income of around 2.2 million dollars." (http://www.problemgambling.net.au/facts.htm)

Oh dear.  How can this be reduced?

 

If you have come to help me . . .

from the Northland Poster Collective.

 

National Child Protection Week this week: take the child-friendly challenge

This week in Australia, Child Protection Week, many events will be held to raise awareness of child abuse and neglect.

Did you know, that in 2005-2006:

• There were over 34,000 children were the subject of a substantiated claim of abuse, neglect or harm?  The number of child protection notifications doubled in the 5 years from 2001-2002.
• There were over 27,000 children on care and protection orders?  That’s an increase of 32% of the past 5 years.
• There were over 25,000 children requiring out-of-home care, which is an increase of 35% over the previous 5 years.

That is worrying enough, but apparently there is an overrepresentation in these cases by indigenous children, children aged under 1 year and children from one parent families. For example, indigenous children are 6.6 times more likely than the rest of the population to be on a care and protection order, and 7 times more likely to be in out-of-home care.

 

Australia can learn from Ireland on poverty reduction

A few days ago I commented on the results of the Australia Fair report, showing that the number of Australians below the poverty line has increased. In today’s SMH there is an article by Adele Horin about how Ireland can teach us a thing or two about how to deal with poverty. The article has a telling comment:

Unlike Australia, the Irish Government has acknowledged that entrenched poverty can exist in the midst of affluence. No matter how glowing the economic indicators, the Irish understood that a rising tide of prosperity, for one reason or another, failed to lift all boats, and it resolved to tackle the conundrum head-on.

Ireland introduced a plan to reduce poverty, and in the 10 years since it was introduced, the poverty rate has dropped from 15% down to 5%, and aims to keep on bringing that number down, to at least 2%.

A strong economy and low unemployment are not enough to tackle the poverty level issue: there needs to be a specific plan to reduce poverty. That includes working towards making housing more affordable, increasing the amount of public housing available for low-income earners, and increasing training options. That plan must include measures to help reduce poverty amongst the elderly.

 

Australians like Americans but not so many like the United States

The Lowy Institute has published the results of a poll of Australians and their views of foreign policy. Here are some of the key findings of the poll:

• 76% of Australians had a favorable opinion of Americans, but only 60% thought the same way of the United States
• The main causes of unfavorable opinions of the United States were President George W. Bush (69% of respondents), and US foreign policies (63%)
• Rating countries on a scale of 1-100 degrees, based on how warmly Australians felt about the country, here is how some countries rated:
  • New Zealand, top at 81 degrees
  • Great Britain, next at 75
  • Singapore, 64
  • Japan, 63
  • United States, 60
  • Vietnam, 60
  • China, 56

 

More Aussies below the poverty line

The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) has released its Australia Fair report, comparing Australia to other countries in key areas. Here are some of their findings:

• Using the poverty line used in OECD countries of 50% of the medain income, the number of Australians below the poverty line has increased from 7.6% in 1994, to 9.9% in 2004 (2 million people)
• Using the poverty line used in the UK and Ireland of 60% of the median income, the number has increased from 17.1% in 1994 to 19.8% in 2004 (3.8 million people)
• The number of people below the poverty line is particularly marked for single people over 65: 39% at the OECD poverty line method and 60.1% at the UK

And yet, today Prime Minister Howard said that because we have a low unemployment rate that there is also now less poverty (news.com.au). Right. He just doesn’t get that while some sectors of the community are doing very well, for many the going is very tough.

 

Abominable: treatment of David Hicks

Australia’s Director of Military Prosecutions, Brigadier Lynn McDade, is reported in SMH as saying that the treatment of David Hicks is “abominable”. Brigadier McDade said “Quite frankly, I think it’s wrong. I don’t care what he’s done or alleged to have done. I think he’s entitled to a trial and a fair one and he is entitled to be charged and dealt with as quickly as is possible. As is anybody.”