The Whitlams once famously expressed the desire to ‘blow up the pokies and drag them away’.
Byron Shire Council would settle for having some planning powers to regulate their use in local pubs and clubs.
Fresh from locking horns with the owners of the Bangalow Hotel over the location of gaming machines at that venue, Council is seeking changes to laws which make poker machines immune from local planning rules.
Pokies exempt from local planning
Under a motion moved by Greens councillor Michelle Lowe, Council is demanding changes to Clause 209 of the Gaming Machines Act 2001, which removes poker machines from local planning processes, and places them under the auspices of the Casino, Liquor and Gaming Control Authority.
Under this clause, local councils have no power to regulate where poker machines are located within a particular venue, nor to impose restrictions on their use or to refuse development consent to a pub or club on the grounds that it intends to install them.
In an impassioned speech to the last Council meeting of 2025, Cr Lowe said that the clause undermined local democracy and prioritised the interests of the gaming industry over community wellbeing.
‘The practical effect is stark,’ councillor Lowe said.
‘Councils cannot object to gaming machine applications on social impact grounds, even when they hold detailed planning, economic and social data about community composition and vulnerability’.
‘Most significantly, councils cannot use their planning powers to address gaming machine impacts – even when local evidence clearly demonstrates concentrated harm.
‘The legislative framework treats gaming machine applications primarily as commercial matters rather than public health issues, despite problem gambling being formally recognised as a significant public health concern.’
Clause 209 review
Council will now write to State MP for Ballina, Tamara Smith, and the NSW Minister for Gaming and Racing, David Harris, demanding that they advocate for the review and amendment of clause 209 on the grounds that it ‘undermines local democracy and prioritises local gaming industry interests over community wellbeing’.
According to figures provided by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, NSW is currently home to approximately 87,500 poker machines – nearly half of Australia’s total and 10 per cent of all gaming machines worldwide.
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