Andrew Wilkie, a key member of Prime Minister Julia Gillard's fragile coalition government, made pokies reform a major condition of his support and he has threatened to abandon her if she does not act, nixing her one-seat majority.
Gillard has promised to crack down with new limits on the sector by 2014.
But the industry has hit back with a Aus$20 million (S$26.4 million) advertising blitz claiming freedom and privacy was at stake, and Wilkie, formerly a military intelligence analyst, said he was being targeted with intimidation tactics.
"In the past two days, I've received a death threat, been threatened with the existence of compromising photos and am having my past as a cadet at Duntroon (military academy) nearly 30 years ago trawled over," said Wilkie.
"The smear campaign shows that this industry, which profits enormously from human misery, will stop at absolutely nothing to prevent these historic poker machine reforms."
Wilkie, best known as an Iraq war whistleblower before he entered parliament last year, said he had referred the threats to the authorities, adding that he had nothing to hide.
Some 600,000 Australians - four per cent of the adult population - are estimated to play pokies at least weekly, with some 95,000 classed as problem gamblers in a study by the Productivity Commission.
Australians' gambling losses totalled more than Aus$19 billion in 2008-2009, according to the commission, with each player an average of about Aus$1,500 out of pocket every year.
ORIGINAL SOURCEContent used in this blog remain the property of their respective owners.
No comments:
Post a Comment