Since December 2017,reclusive Gold Coast gambler and mathematician Duncan Turpie has donated $472,088 to the minor party,according to Electoral Commission of Queensland disclosures.
Mayoral candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan said it was not hypocritical of the Greens to take a stand against poker machines after accepting donations from a professional poker player.Felicity Caldwell
Ahead of the Brisbane City Council election in March,the Greens have to force dozens of suburban sports clubs and venues to dump their poker machines.
Greens mayoral candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan said clubs were causing community harm by relying on revenue from “people who are addicted to poker machines”.
Asked about Turpie’s donations,Sriranganathan insisted it was a different situation,and the Greens had the toughest anti-pokies stance of any party.
“I don’t think it is hypocritical to accept donations from people who have made money from professional poker playing,” he said.
“It’s not the same as accepting donations from a gambling machine company or from a casino.
“And we are taking a strong stance against poker machines,so I don’t think there is any credible evidence that we are being influenced by accepting donations from someone like him.”
Turpie is understood to only donate to the Greens and has long avoided the spotlight.
Clubs Queensland continues to contribute money to both Labor and the LNP to access their political networking events,for which Labor charges $11,000 a year. The Queensland Hotels Association,whose members also have poker machines,follows suit.
The ALH Group,one of the largest poker machine operators in Queensland,has donated to the LNP but not to Labor.
Star Entertainment has previously donated to the LNP and Labor,but not since early 2019,when it forked out $23,300 to Queensland’s opposition.
Labor’s mayoral candidate,Tracey Price,who the LNP has accused of wanting to share City Hall with the Greens,said she did not support the minor party’s policy.
“The Greens should not punish our community clubs by reducing a local revenue stream in a measure that won’t address problem gambling and will only damage the good work being done in clubs across Brisbane,” Price said.
“Banning community clubs with a council lease from having pokies for those residents who want to use them will only mean lost revenue for them,” she said.
“Those customers will then go to the local pub or hotel instead. This will double down on the LNP’s continual neglect of community clubs,which have been consistently underfunded by the 20-year-old LNP council.”
LNP Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner declined to answer specific questions about the policy,with a spokesman saying the council received no revenue from poker machines and only “processed the club leases”.
“The regulation of gaming machines is a state government matter,” Schrinner’s spokesman said.
According to the Alliance for Gambling Reform,Australians in 2022-23.
Get the inside word on the news,sport,food,people and places Brisbane is talking about..