Letters to the Editor
22 December, 2025
Observations on the anti gambling policy at Wingecarribee Shire Council
Dr Raymond Khoury has sent a letter to the editor regarding the article by Stuart Carless on 20 December 2025.
Dear Editor
Stuart Carless’ article (20 December 2025) on Wingecarribee Shire Councillors removing its anti-gambling ban on Bong Bong Picnic Race Club, raises observations that readers may find of interest.
At the 15 October 2025 meeting, Councillors were presented with the 2025/26 Community Financial Assistance Program.
A total of 36 organisations had received Council funding, in accord with Council’s rather strict eligibility criteria.
One of the organisations was Bong Bong Picnic Race Club, which met the criteria to receive $4 000 to renovate the Pavilion bathroom.
This should have been a straight forward ‘rubber stamping’ by the Councillors. But straight forward it wasn’t.
Greens Councillor Heather Champion moved that the grant to Bong Bong Club be withdrawn.
Reading from her laptop, Councillor Champion’s said that ‘New South Wales is one of the jurisdictions in the world with the greatest amount of gambling harm’. She concluded ‘So I think it’s far more appropriate to reallocate that funding accordingly’.
There was no rationale, no facts, no reasoning, as to how renovating the pavilion bathroom was related to harm from excessive gambling. The motion was based on clichés.
Livestream clearly shows that Councillor Champion was intensely focussed on her laptop, even while the other Councillors were speaking.
It makes one wonder whether the respected Councillor was receiving information from outside chamber via the laptop? Given her intense concentration, an observer could be excused for arriving at such a conclusion.
Of further interest, Livestream shows that she was ‘stumbling’ when expressing her thoughts. Given that she is an articulate person, one could be forgiven for pondering as to whether the information on the laptop somehow ‘clashed’ with her own thinking.
Interested readers may wish to look at the Livestream recording at the 38-minute mark to determine their own conclusions. Indubitably, two people looking at the same event often reach different conclusions.
This raises two broad questions. Firstly, should Councillor decision making be based on clichés, rather than on evidence-based facts?
Secondly, if my observations are of any substance, should Councillors be influenced by information that is not openly shared or discussed during Council session? The Code of Meeting Practice makes no mention of it.
I believe that the Minister for Local Government would emphatically say no.
Raymond Khoury
Colo Vale.
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