October 01, 2013
Challenge to candidates on gambling
A Maori public health group is backing a challenge by far north GP Lance O’Sullivan for local body candidates to reveal their stance on gambling.
Anthony Hawke, the preventing gambling harm manager for Hapai Te Hauora Tapui, says the spread of pokies has unleashed a tide of preventable illness on communities.
He says Dr O’Sullivan has also drawn the link between gambling and child poverty, which demands urgent action.
Mr Hawke says sinking lids don’t go far enough, and councils can do more.
"If you remove them all from say Manurewa, people are just going to gamble in other locations and cause harm in those suburbs so if we could come up with a way to weave the harm reduction kaupapa into all policies run through council, both their funding and research arms for instance, that would suppport the reduction of harm," he says.
Mr Hawke and a kaumatua group put together by Hapai Te Hauora have been working with Auckland Council on a range of strategies to back up its sinking lid policy.
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