Sometimes just a few words can make a difference. On 24 July, the Chair of the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC), Fran Thorn, appeared before the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee of the Victorian State Parliament.

PAEC, as the committee is known (and pronounced by all as “pay-eck”), was conducting a public hearing into the findings of the State’s Auditor-General who had recently reviewed the performance of Victoria’s gambling regulator as well as Victoria’s gambling harm minimisation strategy.

PAEC is an all-party committee so can be a brutal experience as members often use it to attempt political point scoring, sometimes at the expense of witnesses who appear before them. I know. I’ve been there.