Even though Julia Gillard scrapped Andrew Wilke’s plans for gambling reform, the politician is still dedicated to his cause. He has recently announced that he will back Kevin Rudd if he becomes Prime Minister, and wants to discuss the issue of poker machine reform with him. It is an interesting turn of events, as the public assumed Wilkie would have dropped his proposal after the devastating blow from Gillard.
However, Wilkie is as dedicated as ever. He truly believes that pokie reform is the most effective way to deal with problem gambling in Australia, and it doesn’t seem like he will ever stop putting up a fight. Clubs Australia’s Jeremy Bath has claimed that Kevin Rudd has no plans to implement poker machine reform, but these claims have been proven to be false.
Rudd himself denied the claims and announced that he would be open to the idea. Whether or not he would actually legislate pokie reform if elected is still up in the air. As it stands, it is too early to tell his stance on the issue, but we will keep updated on this story as it develops.