Popular beat combo artist, turned Green politician, Peter Garrett is in hot water after he sent out an email which did not seem to have the same thought that he gave to his 1980's lyrics.
Garrett, who was known for his aboriginal rights single "Beds are Burning," responded to questions from his electorate by dashing off incomplete and generic emails.
According to the Sun-Herald, a group of voters were concerned about the federal government's poker machine restrictions. Garrett was one of only a handful of politicians to write to an inquiry on problem gambling in support of one of his local clubs.
However, the email, which was sent to five people asking for his support, contained the closing like ''Thank you again for your email/call/letter and please do not hesitate to contact my office on..."
Garrett has changed his tune a bit on poker machines and has been backing the government's line. He thinks he is saving gambling addicts from themselves.
Garrett said he will be contacting the recipients to assure them that he is aware of concerns.
But Clubs spokesman Jeremy Bath said that instead of issuing pro forma emails, Peter Garrett should be explaining why the government is supporting a policy that involves giving problem gamblers a licence to continue their destructive habit.
The time has come, to say fair's fair, we guess.
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Garrett would be better off checking our new national consumer laws. ALL consumers MUST be provided with a receipt for significant spending. Like a diner who gets a receipt for his meal a pokies user spends money on his 'recreational service' but right now, no pokies user can get a receipt for that spending.
Our laws are being broken by pokies daily and Mr Wilkie's reforms will meet the demands of the Australian Consumer Law 2010...chapter3, division4,secs100-101.
So clubs and pubs...do the right thing...be responsible...give your consumers a transaction record and if that requires registration of all consumers and all pokies in all venues...do it and stop your smoke-screening and moaning. You should have done it years ago and you HAVE had PLENTY of warning.
Law is law and you must follow it like all of us. Garrett? Make sure the law is followed as ALL pokies gamblers are being disadvantaged so long as they have no true idea of what they have spent on gambling. They have no chance to make sensible purchase decisions and right now pokies operators are acting illegally. All pokies users could make a legal claim that the lack of a transaction record caused them to be irresponsible, that it exacerbated their overspending....AND it would stand up!
We use our transaction records to review and to slow up on spending....that is partly why we get monthly credit card statements so we reign in our spending later. Pokies users need this tool more than anybody since they are also using an addictive product during their recreational sessions. Face that now, gaming industry and stop pulling the wool over everyone's eyes!
First, Peter Garret is a Labor pollie, not Green. Any pretensions to being green (lower-case) went long ago, along with those of the government.
Second, the bullshit about needing a licence to gamble is misinformation from the gambling industry. Like believing the tobacco industry about the proposals for plain packaging on cigarettes. The government proposal is that gamblers should set a limit on how much they will gamble, and the limit be enforced by the poker machines.
Actually, I can't quite understand the point of this article.
Peter Garret made a submission to an enquiry, then supported the outcome of the enquiry, even though the results were different from his submission.
Surely that is why enquiries exist, to gather information from different sources, and come to a conclusion, which is then supported by the group that commissioned the enquiy.