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March 7th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda The federal opposition has opted to sit on their new policy to tackle problem gambling, in light of Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s recent U-turn to withdraw support for pokies mandatory pre-commitment technology.
In November, the coalition set up an internal gambling taskforce to talk to community and industry representatives about ways to tackle poker machine addiction and was supposed to report back in late February.
The taskforce was excluding mandatory pre-commitment technology as an option.
Clubs have vehemently opposed the measure.
The taskforce is headed by opposition families spokesperson Kevin Andrews and includes frontbenchers Malcolm Turnbull and Luke Hartsuyker, with backbenchers Josh Frydenberg, Steve Ciobo and Alan Tudge.
A spokesman for Mr Andrews told AAP Ms Gillard’s decision to renege on a deal with independent MP Andrew Wilkie to roll out mandatory pre-commitment technology by 2014 had been a game-changer.
“We will be releasing the policy later in the year,” the spokesman said.
Labor has a watered-down gambling reform package before parliament that will introduce a mandatory pre-commitment trial in the ACT next year, among other measures, to address problem gambling.
Mr Andrews’ spokesman said the opposition will be waiting to see whether the trial gets up.
It’s believed the coalition most likely won’t be supporting the government’s proposed ACT trial when it comes to a vote in parliament.
Mr Andrews later said in a statement he was not convinced the trial would go ahead because gaming manufacturers had told him the timeframe for the trial was unrealistic and they couldn’t produce new machines in time.
“I’m concerned that taxpayer dollars will go from the Labor government to, among others, Labor clubs in the ACT,” he said.
“Ultimately gaming is a state issue, and I believe we shouldn’t continue to erode the powers and responsibilities of the states.”
Pre-commitment technology requires gamblers to set limits on the amount of money they are willing to lose on high-betting machines which can chew through an average $1200 an hour.
Anti-pokies crusader Mr Wilkie said he was disappointed with the opposition’s silence.
“It’s simply not good enough for the opposition to put this in the too hard basket,” he said.
He said the government’s broken promise “was dreadful behaviour and its watered-down pokies package is patently unsatisfactory without amendments”.
“But at least the government has something on the table which is more than can be said for the opposition right now.”
Families and Community Services minister Jenny Macklin said Labor was tackling problem gambling to help poker machine addicts and their families, while the opposition did not have a policy.
“The Liberals have never cared about problem gamblers and their families,” Ms Macklin said in a statement on Wednesday.
“We will introduce legislation for the first national reforms to tackling problem gambling in this parliamentary session.”
Ms Macklin said the opposition had to decide if they were going to support the upcoming bill to address problem gambling.
“Now is our chance to bring in genuine, long-lasting reforms to tackle problem gambling, and no member of parliament should waste it by playing politics,” she said.
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