Greater Bendigo 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?
Gregory	Penna	Eppalock	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅	I can see both sides of the argument for and against. As a community they give people an outing and social interaction, but if abused they will cause great pain, We definitely do not need any more pokies, but what we need is someway to control the problem gamblers accessing them
Brett	Mitchell	Eppalock	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	I support the development of gambling-free public spaces and the expansion of gambling in the suburbs & towns of Greater Bendigo. There is no place for gambling in local community sport.
Vaughan	Williams	Lockwood	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	Well, they all need to be addressed.
Jennifer	Alden	Lockwood	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	All of them. The City of Greater Bendigo has recently revised their Gambling Policy, with the new policy in draft form currently. As a public health professional I have spoken frequently of the health impacts of gaming machines in our municipality, where over $50 million is lost each year. I have successfully led the opposition to expansion of gaming machine numbers in Bendigo - an example being the Council vote blocking of expansion of 44 machines at the Wellington Hotel in 2017. Community sports should not be sponsored by the proceeds of gaming.
Andrew	QUIN	Whipstick	❌	✅	❌	❌	✅	N/A
Kathryn	Stanislawski	Whipstick	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	I am supportive of removal of gambling advertising during sports. People who are suffering gambling harm could benefit from better managed/reduced opening hours for poker machines.
Michelle	Goldsmith	Whipstick	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	I believe poker machines are a blight on communities, and believe there should be no more of them in Bendigo.
Michelle	Goldsmith	Whipstick	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	I support all policies which will reduce the proliferation and the harm which pokies wreak within communities. I believe sport should be free from gambling and alcohol advertising and sponsorship. I believe that state governments need stop relying on pokies revenue, and that all candidates and political parties should be fully transparent in declaring donations from the gaming and hotels associations. Pokies are a blight on communities, particularly struggling and socioeconomically vulnerable communities. Local councils should be fully empowered to restrict or ban them.