Talk about a role reversal. Last night at the final Manningham City Council meeting of 2009, pokies giant Woolworths sent one of their spindoctors to the public gallery to ask hostile questions of the shareholder activist turned local politician.
The following motion made it on to the agenda as the final piece of business for the night:
14.1 Marketing of Pokies Venues in Manningham Involving Children
By Councillor Mayne
Motion That:
Manningham City Council calls on Woolworths and its pokies business partner Bruce Mathieson to cease involving children in the marketing of their five pokies venues in Manningham, namely The Doncaster Inn, The Shoppingtown Hotel, The Yarra Valley Country Club, The Cherry Hill Tavern and The Manningham Club.
Council notes the combined federal-state National Principles For The Conduct of Responsible Gaming state that children should not be “exposed to gambling areas within venues” and calls on Woolworths to cease promotions such as “Kids Eat Free” and “Kids Birthday Parties” at their venues in Manningham whilst also ensuring that any facilities accessible by children at these venues are not in any way exposed to the sights and sounds of pokies gambling.
After ripping into Woolies for a few minutes, the ruling clique quickly used their numbers to shut down debate and delay any vote until we adopt our full gaming policy early next year.
The hit man was Labor councillor Ivan Reid, who must have told the gallery he is a committed Christian and devoted father almost 20 times this year, but was still happy to give Australia’s biggest pokies operator a win for the night in their push to maintain their lucrative McDonalds-style marketing practices.
Sydney-based Woolies has out-sourced the management of its 12,000-strong pokies empire to colourful Melbourne-based billionaire Bruce Mathieson, who has employed a bloke called David Curry to be the spindoctor for the joint venture operation.
On reading about the coming debate here, Curry sent a letter to all councillors arguing against the “ridiculous” motion.
However, Curry went further by coming to last night’s meeting and submitting the following two written questions to be asked at the end proceedings:
1. Can Councillor Mayne please answer what state legislation prevents hotels from holding/promoting children’s parties?
2. Can Councillor Mayne please answer if minors are strictly prohibited from entry and participation as a matter of law in gaming rooms?
Talk about shooting fish in a barrel. The mayor, who had been interrupting debate all night, somehow thought these questions were designed to embarrass and should not be asked.
Bring it on, I said, and proceeded to look directly at the pokies spinner and unload with an even bigger spray than this effort served up to Woolies chairman James Strong at the AGM in Sydney on November 26.
Towards the end of the tirade accusing Woolies of systematically targeting children, adopting a lowest common denominator approach and preying on parents to become addicts, I actually felt sorry for the poor bloke.
After all, us precious Manningham councillors don’t allow unscripted verbal questions from the gallery, which is precisely what I do to public company chairs.
Therefore, I had an hour’s notice to prepare answers to the Woolies questions and the poor spinner had no right of reply, instead just scurrying off into the night. We need to open up Manningham council meeting to unscripted verbal questions from the public, if only to better hold our highly eccentric ruling clique to account.
I had the dubious pleasure of dining last week at one of Manningham’s hotel/pokies/childcare centres. It was specifically selected by my friend because there was a play area for her five-year-old.
I have a lot of ethical problems about supporting suburban gambling venues but didn’t want to argue with a worn-out parent. There was only a moderate amount of stale cigarette butts at the entrance but once we stepped into the foyer it smelt like it hadn’t been aired out since smoking was outlawed in food venues.
The family-friendly bistro was separated from the pokies room by a bar where one could order meals, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages. The annoying sound of the poker machines was well and truly drowned out by the sound of kids screaming. Somehow this disturbed me even more than the existence of suburban pokies. The place was packed with young families having a 6pm dinner.
Besides the play area, wall of pictures that had obviously been coloured in by young children and the fact that kids could scream with abandon it wasn’t really that family-friendly. One had to go up to the bar to order and pre-pay which meant each party had to include at least 2 adults – one to order the meal and one to supervise their kid(s). Or they could just let their kids run wild unsupervised (a number of people seemed to have taken that option). Drinks had to be ordered and paid for in a separate queue. The meals came quickly and were generally of an acceptable quality (although the frozen chips could have done with another 5 minutes in the oven to ensure they were thawed properly). The prices were comparable to those charged by a small family-run suburban restaurant that in my experience generally provides a much higher quality meal (and ambiance).
For the first time in my life I could understand the perspective of inner-city yummy mummies who take their babies and toddlers to trendy cafes and annoy the crap out of non-parents.
Surely there has to be a better alternative for young families than these two extremes. Is it too much to ask for a family friendly restaurant that offers a safe play area, full table service and a decently cooked meal for both adults and kids?
Waverley Council in Sydney’s East has for as long as I can recall had a speaking list from the public for any item on the council agenda. That would seem a good location for questions direct and rhetorical to be asked by the public. Whether councillors want to answer when that item comes up later in the meeting would be another thing. Yes if it’s a useful platform to respond, no if it’s too ouchy. The disjunction in timing may not satisfy either.
I have fond memories of Mayor Paul Pearce (now MP) saying, when my rhetoric got too spicy, ‘Cr McLoughlin, address the chair, not the public gallery!’ Surprising how useful a semi swivel and tilt of the head to the gallery can unnerve your rivals: In a minority you can sort of flip the power dynamic by changing the audience, if you’ve got a resonating line. Lose the battle (vote) and win the war (public sentiment). And the bigger parties know that. Viva la democracy.
Campbelltown SA has had unscripted questions from the Gallery in its meetings for about 6 years. It works very well and as it is at the beginning of a meeting the questions are covered off early and residents and ratepayers can leave or stay as they please. Questions are directed, however, at the council as a whole rather than to individual councillors so it is less personal and more likely to be on topic. Delegations to the council can be given as well at the beginning of a meeting.