If you’ve been following the news about poker machine reform in Australia, two names you’ve likely heard a lot of are: Jenny Macklin and Andrew Wilkie. Over the course of the past year, these two political figures have spent a great deal of time negotiating the terms of pokie reform. Now that reform legislation has been passed, Wilkie – who fought hard for gambling reform – calls Macklin one of the ‘heroes’ that made everything possible.
At some points, tension was high. Macklin seemed to support the idea of poker machine reform while other member of her party resisted it. It made the negotiation process quite difficult, delaying the passing of the pokie reform bill for quite some time. Although the legislation is very different from the terms that Wilkie has originally proposed he – and other responsible gambling advocates – are pleased with the result.
"I actually think Jenny Macklin is one of the heroes of this whole sorry saga,” Wilkie says. “I am satisfied that Jenny Macklin personally has had her heart in this”. Unfortunately, after all of their work, provision to trial mandatory pre-commitment reform in the ACT has been stalled. Clubs ACT voted to delay the trial until after the election. The Coalition, which opposes the trial, could take power and scrap the entire process.
However, Wilkie remains confident that the mandatory pre-commitment trial will take place. “The reform has clear majority public support,” Wilkie says. “It would politically be very risky for an Abbott government to act in the face of all of that public interest”. Over the course of the past year, pokie reform faced a great deal of resistance from politicians in power.
However, local residents and gambling advocates showed their support for the legislation. Should the Coalition be elected and decide to scrap the trial, it would made the group popular with gaming club owners but very unpopular with the general public and a select few politicians.
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