Boroondara City Council Candidate Responses - Alliance for Gambling Reform

Boroondara City Council Candidate Responses

Candidate Responses

First Name
Last Name
Ward
Do you support reducing the opening hours of poker machine venues?
Do you support local governments having greater say on the granting or refusing applications for poker machines in their respective communities?
Do you support the banning of all sports gambling ads?

Will you pledge to not take any donations from venues or organisations that derive income from gambling interests?
Will you commit to reducing gambling harm in your LGA?




 


Which of the policies
referred to in our Candidate Information Pack do you support?

What is your position on poker machine policy?
Greg Ball Bellevue ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ I support gambling-free public spaces, gambling-free community sport and stopping the expansion of gambling in our suburbs and towns.
Alex Sawyer Bellevue ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ Poker machines should be limited to 10 machines per venue
Sienna Watson Bellevue ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ As a young member of our community, I can speak testament to the extensive normalisation of gambling within our society having grown up inundated with its presence. I stand firmly against this incursion. This is not a reality that we can accept for future generations, nor our current one. I strongly support an end to gambling ads. Gambling ads not only diminish the integrity of our sporting culture, but the health and financial implications are incomprehensible. Local Council holds the responsibility to support community sport in this transition. The provision of grants, funding planning assistance and enhancement of facilities, will enable our local sporting community to be safe from gambling promotion and become gambling-free zones.
Demonisation of those who suffer from gambling harm is counterproductive and neglects attention to the systemic and structural nature and cause of this issue. I commit to treating gambling harm as a public health issue. I seek to undertake a multifaceted approach to advocacy, to address the social, economic and health implications it imposes, as well as targeting the systems that inflict this harm upon society. I stand by the initiative to prevent the expansion of gambling in our community. I believe we must go beyond this and undertake a proactive stance by facilitating opportunities for social interaction by establishing gambling-free zones to create a new norm.
I envision Boroondara to be a community free from gambling harm. As of 2016, 426 people in Boroondara were homeless, rapidly increasing from the last census. Yet, for the last decade, Boroondara Council has spent approximately $20 million each year on gaming expenditure.
This is unacceptable. This money can be better spent prioritising community support, the preservation of our environment, community engagement programs and funding our local sporting clubs towards becoming gambling-free.
Council's current strategy is to reduce the negative impacts of gambling yet somehow does not associate this with the need to decrease access.
I seek a pre-emptive approach. I endeavour to reduce the amount of EGM's and campaign for firmer planning permit criteria to reduce any potential possibilities of an increase.
I endeavour for Boroondara Council to join the Alliance for Gambling reform.
I assure you that I will not compromise on the well-being and safety of our community.
Bill Young Cotham ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ Gambling is a big problematic issue across society. Governments need to strongly regulate the industry and protect people from gambling facilities.
Victor Franco Gardiner ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ 1. Support gambling-free public space.
2. Backing gambling-free community sport.
3. Stopping the expansion of gambling in our suburbs & towns
Simon Denton Gardiner ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ I agree that gambling especially poker machines can be harmful. I am highly opposed to gambling advertising that children may see as it normalises gambling practices.
Terence Guthridge Gardiner ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ I do not support uncontrolled gambling or the unfettered advertising of gambling.
Wes Gault Glenferrie ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ I have never gambled, we have taught our children not to gamble and they don't and any opportunity I have to stop gambling advertising or the introduction of gambling venues to our suburbs, I would pursue enthusiastically.
Luke Balasingam Glenferrie ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ My general overall view is harm minimisation thanks!
Anthony Deicmanis Maling ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ Without referring to any of your policies I have always been against pokies and casinos in Victoria from the day they were introduced.
James Damches Maling ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌ ✅ My position is that it should not be in the suburbs of Melbourne, simply in one location where it can be monitored accordingly.
Peter Campbell Maling ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ I support gambling-free public space. I back gambling-free community sport. There is no place for gambling in community sport. I support stopping the expansion of gambling in our suburbs and towns.
Yolanda Torrisi Maranoa ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ I support all the policies in your document especially gambling free community sport. I support limiting the location site numbers and the hours of operation of gambling facilities at the venues.
Robert Baillieu Riversdale ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ I support all 3 of the policies in the 'advocacy asks' section of the council's candidate factsheet.
I believe it is possible to gamble responsibly and am an avid Poker fan myself. However, I recognise the strong hurt that addictive poker machines have on individuals and families throughout our community. I believe we should begin to look at gambling in the same way we look at cigarettes. As a serious health issue worthy of proper legislation.
Local government has a role to play in addressing gambling addiction.
Sali Miftari Riversdale ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ Thank you for the important work you do in keeping our community safe and and advocating for proper controls on harmful gaming facilities. Let me be clear: if elected, I will not support any planning proposal for new recreation and gaming developments with poker machines. I am a strong supporter of the three recommendations highlighted, but am particularly fond of the call to ban gambling in community sport. Recreational sport brings our community together at our parks - we don't need the scourge of computerised gambling filtering through our community this way. 
Nicholas Bieber Riversdale ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ I'm a social worker,  I know the damage they do. They need wiping off the planet. 
Susan Biggar Riversdale ✅ ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅ Enforcing closing hours from midnight to 10am, for example. 
Alan Jane Solway ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ As an avid anti gambler, I support all minimisation - especially banning advertising
Alan Jane Solway ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ As an avid anti gambler, I support all minimisation - especially banning advertising
Sam Fitchett Solway ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ The key policy which sticks out for me is the need to treat gambling as a public health issue. Gambling is not just potentially addicting; gambling is, at its very core, monetised addiction. We must remove these exploitative, unproductive businesses from our community, and provide our most vulnerable citizens pathways to rehabilitation. As you can imagine, I also completely support the removal of poker machines from council land, as well as the proposed social and economic evaluation.