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An influential Sydney mayor has launched an extraordinary attack on the Minns government over poker machines, accusing his own party’s MPs of being beholden to an intimidation campaign akin to the kind waged by America’s powerful gun lobby.
Inner West Council Mayor Darcy Byrne, touted as an eventual replacement for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the long-held seat of Grayndler, said the issue had been “swept under the rug” by Labor ministers and backbenchers for too long and described the scale of losses in pubs and clubs as “obscene”.
Speaking before a showdown on poker machine policy at this weekend’s NSW Labor conference, Byrne claimed the state government had been influenced by a gaming industry lobby effort designed to sink meaningful reform.
“For far too long, the poker machine lobby has held the sort of sway it has been able to exert, the sort of intimidation that has warped our politics,” he said.
“And really, too often they’ve been acting like the National Rifle Association in the United States by targeting any person or leader who speaks up to say the poker machine harm is out of control.”
Byrne said the public interest on poker machine harm “has to trump the private interest of the poker machine lobby”.
ClubsNSW, the peak lobby group for the industry, was contacted for comment.
The Herald reported in 2013 that the clubs industry took advice from the NRA before orchestrating a campaign that derailed federal Labor’s proposed poker machine reforms.
Senior executives at ClubsNSW travelled to Washington DC to listen to NRA leaders on how to use a large membership base to force political outcomes.
More than 18 months have passed since the Minns government was handed the findings of an independent panel on gaming reform but it is yet to announce its policy response.
Byrne’s Left faction has agreed to prioritise a proposal at this weekend’s conference to bind Labor to cut at least 45,000 machines over the next decade. Labor’s newly preselected upper house candidate and Unions NSW boss Mark Morey is also pushing for tougher policy reform.
“Our whole party and our movement, including the union movement, need to make a decision that we’re finally going to address this scourge,” Byrne said on Tuesday.
“It’s not for the parliamentary party to decide that this problem can be swept under the rug.
“And as you can see from the growing outcry from civic society, from people across this state, this is a problem that can’t be ignored any longer.”
The teaming up of Byrne, from the party’s Left faction, and Morey, from the influential Right, is a challenge for the Minns government, which has managed to suppress any public dissent from its backbench and cabinet on gaming policy.
Byrne said he was speaking on behalf of the many within Labor who believed the party’s position was not strong enough.
Annual losses on poker machines in NSW are on course to tick over $10 billion this year, with about $1 billion of that likely from the Fairfield and Canterbury Bankstown local government areas.
“By any measure, this is completely and utterly out of control,” Byrne said.
“We know that the people who are being affected by poker machine harm are largely working-class communities and low-income families – the people who can afford it least. And that’s why the Labor Party, which exists to represent working-class people and low-income families, has a particular responsibility to take action on poker machine harm.”
A spokesperson for the Minns government declined to comment.
The government has rolled out a series of measures to deal with gambling since the 2023 election, but the total number of active machines is up, and last week’s budget papers showed tax revenue from pokies in hotels – where about one-quarter of gaming machines reside – is expected to rise from $1.63 billion now to $2.2 billion by 2029-30.
NSW Council of Social Service chief executive officer Cara Varian said gambling rates were a “public health crisis”.
“Gambling harm does not stay in one postcode,” she said. “It turns up in our schools, in our hospitals, in our police call-outs, in our family courts. It is time to take action.”
Gambling reform emerged as a major issue before the last state election after former premier Dominic Perrottet committed to making all poker machines cashless.
The Minns government’s impending reform package will rely heavily on some form of facial recognition technology and other voluntary measures. However, it will stop short of endorsing mandatory cashless gaming as recommended by the NSW Crime Commission in 2022.
Inner West Council, Wesley Mission and NCOSS will hold a gambling reform summit in mid-July to keep pressure on the government.
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Bevan Shields is a senior writer, and former editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners
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