Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I say to the Leader of the Opposition: if he is prepared to use the terminology of 'old scourge', why is he not prepared to do anything about it? Why is he so hypocritical that he will not today pledge the Liberal and National parties to support this legislation that the government wants to bring to this parliament to address poker machine reform and problem gambling? The Leader of the Opposition in his press conference a little bit earlier today was asked about this and said, 'That's not what we're here to talk about today', and then just shut down his press conference. Running and hiding is not good enough from this Leader of the Opposition. If he is going to have a pretence of caring about problem gambling, then he should pledge today, he should pledge now, his support for poker machine reform. Otherwise he will not be taken seriously. On interactive gambling there is a draft report out for consultation. If the Leader of the Opposition has views, I suggest he involve himself in the process, but no-one is going to take him seriously unless he says, 'Yes, I support poker machine reform'.

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