Published: 8:51AM Friday March 21, 2014 Source: ONE News
The Problem Gambling Foundation is shocked it has lost most of its Government funding, warning it will mean big job losses and a lack of support services.
The foundation this morning confirmed it has lost almost all of its $5 million Government funding and will be closing its 12 offices around the country, with most of its 63 staff losing their jobs.
Critics say the funding cut is because the foundation has been critical of the Government's gambling policy.
The Ministry of Health told the foundation it had a better offer to provide the health services the foundation provides. That "better offer" was from the Salvation Army's Oasis service, which will receive most of the funding cut from the foundation.
The foundation's director, Graeme Ramsey, says staff are "absolutely gutted" about the cut which came as a big surprise.
The foundation has been the key provider of addiction and treatment services for gambling problems for about 20 years and has dealt with 25,000 people in that time.
Mr Ramsey told ONE News the foundation has been the best placed organisation to help problem gamblers.
"I think we're unique in terms of the expertise that we have," he says.
"And we have the scale and the experience that I think actually no one else has. So I will be very interested to see what a superior bid from another organisation looks like."
"And I guess they'll be celebrating in SkyCity tonight, and a whole bunch of the pokie trusts this evening. But we're not celebrating here."
'Unpopular with the Government'
Labour MP and Internal Affairs spokesperson Trevor Mallard has claimed the shutdown is largely because the organisation vocally opposed the Government's controversial SkyCity convention centre law.
The bill was passed in November last year and allows the casino operator to build an international convention centre in exchange for an extension of its gaming licence, which means it can have more pokie machines and gaming tables.
Mr Mallard said: "The foundation has made itself particularly unpopular with the Government around the SkyCity convention centre deal. This decision is a blatant attempt by the Government to silence its critics."
But Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne denies this, saying the Ministry of Health made it clear in 2012 that it would be looking for organisations to provide gambling harm minimisation services.
"This is the outcome of that process," he says.
"The Ministry of Health has been particularly mindful to keep the process clearly separate from any perception of political interference."
A panel of six - three Ministry of Health staff and three external evaluators - considered tenders for the contract.
Mr Dunne pointed out that the Salvation Army was also critical of the SkyCity convention centre deal.作者: 韵儿 时间: 2014-3-22 09:26:48