June 24, 2013
Gambling bill a humiliating misstep
Māori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell has been criticised for potentially making problem gambling worse.
Political Commentator Matt McCarten says Mr Flavell should have yanked his Gambling Harm Reduction Bill, rather than allow a radically-changed version of the bill to go forward.
He says the way the Māori Party’s partner in Government dealt with the bill was contemptuous, and all the key aspects are now missing.
That includes Mr Flavell’s attempts to limit pokie numbers and stop trusts sucking money out of poor Māori and Pacific communities to support activities in rich suburbs.
"Thirty seven percent it is now and Te Ururoa say he wants 80 percent to go back into the same community. National say they will not allow that but they will allow it to go to 40 percent, maybe, over the next two or three years and that's it. So they are not going to get pokies closed down, They can actually get more pokies, there used to be a maximum of nine, that is being removed. So there is grounds to say it will actually make the problem worse," Mr McCarten says.
He says by skewering the bill the week before the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti by-election, National has damaged the Māori Party’s campaign in the seat.
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