The Prime Minister says her talks with Andrew Wilkie about poker machine gambling reforms have been constructive but has declined to give any details.
Ms Gillard met on Sunday with the Tasmanian politician to talk about his proposed poker machine gambling reforms but has so far declined to give any details.
'Those discussions are ongoing and it's not going to be my intention to comment on them in the media,' she told reporters in Hobart on Monday.
'But we had a constructive discussion yesterday.'
Asked about Senator Nick Xenophon's comment that the reforms are doomed to failure because the federal government no longer relies on Mr Wilkie's lower house vote to hold power, Ms Gillard said he wasn't involved in her talks with Mr Wilkie.
'Senator Xenophon was not in those discussions yesterday so the people who best know how those discussions are going were in those talks ... and me and Mr Wilkie describe them as constructive because they were.'
Mr Wilkie was due on Monday to fly to Adelaide to meet Senator Xenophon, who has been a strong supporter of the lower house MP's poker machine reforms.
Mr Wilkie said on Sunday it was inconceivable Gillard would renege on the deal to impose mandatory pre-commitment for high loss poker machines and a $1 limit on other machines.
The reforms were part of the deal Mr Wilkie struck in return for his support for a Labor minority government after the 2010 election.
But the Gillard government is less reliant on Mr Wilkie's support since coalition MP Peter Slipper defected to become Speaker.
Senator Xenophon, who backs a $1 limit on all bets, said on Sunday the government was about to commit an act of 'political bastardry' and sink the reforms by making them too contentious for many MPs to vote for.
Greens Senator Richard Di Natale on Monday agreed there was a risk the proposed reforms may not go ahead.
'I think that there's a real risk that the policy proposal put forward by Andrew Wilkie won't get up,' he told ABC Radio.
Anthony Ball from Clubs Australia said the $1 maximum bet, just like mandatory pre-commitment, probably won't help problem gamblers, but will be 'hugely expensive' to implement.
'It would be a sad day that we pursued policy simply because it's easier to get through parliament and that's what Nick Xenophon and others are talking about,' Mr Ball told ABC Radio.
Key Independent MP Tony Windsor told ABC Radio: 'I think the $1 bet suggestion is a lot easier to understand.
'I think people have difficulty understanding what mandatory pre-commitment meant in the first place.
'But obviously putting a limit on the bet is more understandable.'
Mr Wilkie said he expected to give a detailed public update on the progress later this week.
No comments:
Post a Comment