Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I remind the Prime Minister of her declaration that: 'When you give a promise to the Australian people you should do everything in your power to honour that promise.' How can the Australian people trust the Prime Minister on anything when she promised the member for Denison in writing that she would introduce mandatory precommitment for poker machines and then trashed that promise this year?

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

I say to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition that, on matters to address problem gambling, the government is very serious about dealing with the destruction that problem gambling can bring to Australians and their families. Of course, the member for Denison has a very specific view about mandatory precommitment. That legislation was not going to succeed in this parliament because the opposition had said very clearly that they would not support it—because the opposition say no to absolutely everything. We would not at all be surprised that the opposition would choose to oppose a government measure. All they ever do is just say no.

So, in the face of the opposition's obstruction, we have worked hard to put together legislation which we hope will get the support of this House. I do not know if the Leader of the Opposition has specifically stated where he stands on this legislation, but it will be the biggest package of reforms to address problem gambling ever considered by the national parliament. So the Deputy Leader of the Opposition may want to reflect on whether she wants to do anything about problem gambling or whether she wants to just keep saying no and playing politics. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition may also want to discuss with the Leader of the Opposition, given she is interested in these questions of trust, what he meant when he said in the 2004 election campaign about the Medicare safety net:

That is an absolutely rock solid, ironclad commitment.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, on a point of order on relevance: I asked the Prime Minister about her broken promise to the member for Denison and she should direct her answer to her broken promise.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I ask the Prime Minister to return to the question before the chair.

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

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition is interested in broken promises, so she may want to raise that with the Leader of the Opposition, trashed after the election. On problem gambling, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has a decision to make: does she care at all about problem gambling or not? I suspect, like the rest of the opposition, she will just say no.