It is communities like mine that suffer the most from gambling, and I am going to give you some statistics here. In the City of Brimbank, which takes in Sunshine, Albion, Ardeer and Sunshine West in my electorate, gambling losses since July last year amounted to more than $103 million. These are the highest gambling losses in the state. If you come on over to Sunshine, Albion, Ardeer and Sunshine West, they are great places with great communities. But what you will notice is they do not strike you as particularly wealthy communities. They are communities that have suffered systemic economic disadvantage for many, many generations. They are great communities to live in and raise your kids, but you do have to stop and ask yourself why these communities have plugged $103 million into the gambling industry since July last year. On top of that $103 million, in Wyndham, which takes in Truganina and Williams Landing in my electorate, it amounted to $77 million and ranked seventh in gambling losses.

Now add up how much, in less than a year, has been accounted for in gambling losses in these suburbs alone in my electorate and think about what you could build for $180 million in losses. You could build a train station; you could build Truganina train station. In less than one year you could build a train station. You could go ahead and help fund schools. You could build sporting grounds with that kind of money, but this money has been plugged into certain facilities in my local community across these suburbs. The suburbs I have read out – one, two, three, four, five, six suburbs – have helped contribute to these kinds of losses. This is outstanding.

We talk about clubs having gambling, our sporting clubs having poker machines and needing them to survive and things like that. I think it is really important in this place to point out how much is actually going into the gambling industry and into these machines, particularly at these big gambling venues, which quite frankly are an absolute eyesore in my local community. I think it is appalling if they are backing in local sporting clubs. I do not want to see generations of the next round of children in these suburbs in clubs or major gaming facilities in my local electorate. I am not going to say who it is in particular, but every time I drive past – and they are very close to local sporting grounds – it always amazes me that they seem to have some kind of outdoor playground facilities that help draw people there and keep them there. These are not people going in for just a meal and a bit of a punt on a pokie; these are people who really go in with not much money. They may get a cheap meal, but they are there for a long time and they lose a hell of a lot of money. These two LGAs, Wyndham and Brimbank, are similar in nature: middle and outer suburban areas facing a lot of disadvantage which are recording tens of millions of dollars in gambling losses.

We have seen tremendous progress in this space, which is something that this government should be proud of, and we are proud of it. But I think members on this side of the house know we need to go even further. We have set up the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission, the strongest gambling regulator in Australia, with enhanced oversight and enforcement powers. We have set up mandatory carded play for pokies at Crown Casino, ensuring that players can track and manage their gambling as the night goes on. Since August last year we have successfully had mandatory closing times, and I was particularly happy to see this. I would have liked it to have gone even further. Since August last year, we have successfully had those mandatory closing times, between 4 am and 10 am, preventing the practice of bussing gamblers from one venue to the next to get around closure periods.

These are all really important changes, and they are delivering benefits for folks living in my community in Melbourne’s west, and I know that because I go and talk to the services and the agencies that then have to deal with the problem gamblers and the addictions to things like gambling and having to deal with their families and the fallout that is going on in their lives.

There is always a lot more to do, and that is what this bill is about today. It should be clear from our government’s position that we want to ensure that gambling venues can continue to operate and thrive, and we want to make sure that community clubs, RSLs and hospitality venues can continue to remain an important part of Victorian social life. Whether you like it or not, there are some people that do like going to these clubs, and they have a right to go to these clubs. I understand that these venues are important for a lot of folks in our communities, and they are important for folks in my communities both as a source of local jobs but also for entertainment and for social engagement where folks can go to catch up with family and friends. My nanna, all those years ago – rest her soul, she has passed away now – loved going down to the local RSL and, whatever money she had left in her pension, I think she used to make 5-cent bets on the pokies. She really enjoyed doing it; it was something she did for a long time. She went deaf when she was 60 and faced isolation in her life after my grandfather died, and being picked up by the community bus and taken to the RSL, getting a cheap meal and being able to sit in front of a poker machine did get her out of her home.

Would we have said that that was the best way she could spend her time? I would say no; the family did not agree with that, but that kept Nanna happy and she enjoyed doing it. But what we know is that we want the gambling experience to be safe, and my nanna was not a problem gambler – she was someone, though, on a pension and who had no money. But what we want is that the gaming experience needs to be safe, and that is really tricky. It is really tricky with legislative reform; it is really tricky around talking to the services that are dealing with the fallout in people’s lives from problem gambling and trying to unpick their addiction to gambling. We need to ensure that patrons remain in control of their gaming and their spending.

Now, because of the effects of what happens when they lose control, we know they are incredibly devastating in our community. I just talked about my nanna loving to have a little punt; her brother who passed away many years before her – I do not remember him, Uncle Les – was a gambling addict; he was an alcoholic. He had had his marriage split up and was, I think, a physically abusive partner to both his wife and his children and then his partner, and gambling played a really big part in his life. That is just one example of how devastating it can be and what happens when people lose control and become gambling addicts and are also addicted to alcohol and other substances.

Uncontrolled gambling addiction is the kind of scourge that destroys relationships and families and ruins lives and livelihoods, and that is something that our government keeps in mind time and time again whilst also trying to balance the right of all Victorians to be able to go and have a punt, go to the RSL, go to the local club, get a meal. We do that; I do that and enjoy that time.

In the short time I have got left I would like to give a big shout-out to the previous minister. When you talk to the member for Williamstown about her views on gambling and gambling harm reduction in this state it is something she takes incredibly seriously and feels very passionately about, and that was about protecting folks mostly in electorates like hers in the electorate of Williamstown and electorates like mine, folks in the western suburbs, from having their gambling become out of control and ruining lives; she knew exactly what it did. I attended the services and organisations that provided assistance and support to gambling addicts and their families, so I do commend her on the power of work that she has done, and this bill is finally before the house and I commend it to the house.