"Pokies"
We’ve had the miners and resource workers with the MRRT, then the truckies with the “Convoy of No Consequence” comment (thanks A. Albanese), and, of course, those understandably concerned about the merits of a unilateral carbon tax (expressly ruled out before the election) being branded as fruitcakes and extremists.
As if that wasn’t enough, Gillard is now taking on real Labor heartland – the AFL and the NRL, who are opposing Gillard’s poker machine reform. But this isn’t as insignificant as it sounds. Andrew Wilkie, one of the independents currently providing a working majority for Labor, has threatened to withdraw support if the reforms are not passed into law.
So despite the fact that everyone is focussed on asylum seekers or climate change, it may be the lowly poker machine that brings down Labor:
THE Gillard government has a powerful new opponent of its poker machine reforms, with a cashed-up alliance of rival football codes to back the clubs industry’s campaign during grand final week.
In a move anti-gambling campaigners are labelling a disgrace, the AFL and NRL are planning to run television advertisements this week against mandatory pre-commitment technology for high-intensity pokies.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou and individual club presidents are scheduled to meet tomorrow to map out campaign strategies. (source)
Australian Climate Madness 
oh well , they’re only voters ,,, boy is she gonna get a shock next electioin if not sooner
Cue Steve McCroskey (Lloyd Bridges)..
My head has almost fallen off from so much shaking in disbelief at Labor’s ignorance and poor timing.
@ Paul – I’ll bet that if Rudd is leader of the ALP he will win the next election, that’s how dumb voters are…… maybe I should say the media will make sure that Labor wins.
Who will Julia alienate next? Well certainly not the ABC, which has leapt to her defence with the following story.
“Expert rubbishes AFL’s pokies warning”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-26/gambling-expert-dismisses-pokies-opposition/2941872
Ahh their ABC….no media inquiry necessary….
the labor party could dig up ben chifely and the stupid electorate would still vote labor. sometimes i think there should be an IQ test before electing and the age to vote should be raised to 25. all these inculcated laft wing uni students who have never experience real life do not deserve a say. after you have actually worked and lived through pathetic excuses for labor then you realise that they are nothing worse than tyrannical despots longing for the return of chairman mao.
While I do agree with you on the mandatory IQ test (jeez there is so many idiots in AUS these days), I must protest against raising the voting age. I’m 21 & I HAVE lived in the real world, I don’t waste my time at Uni with all the so-called” Lefties”. I have hated the Labor party since 2009 when K.Rudd Tried to bring in his Emissions Trading Scheme & when Stephen “Adolf” Conroy also tried to bring in his “Chinese style” mandatory internet filter system. Labor showed me their true colours when those two pieces of corrupt legislation were announced.
Please don’t assume everybody under the age of 25 is a complete & utter moron. Or that we all fall under the stereotype of left-wing uni student who believes any lie the Labor Government says under false environmental pretenses. Or that we all care more about going out drinking & partying more than politics.
Personally I don’t buy into the whole false left right paradigm, its all one big staged distraction anyway. Both sides of government are equally corrupt. Although If I had to choose between them I would choose Liberal (So i guess that puts me under the stereotype of right-winged conservative right?), Well at least Tony Abbot talks some sense, unlike the pathetic excuse for a prime minister we currently have, whose nose grows substantially larger with every new lie told. (yeah cheap shot, I know)
Julia Gillard’s quest for the keys to The Lodge will leave the Labor Party in the political wilderness for many years to come, following the next election.
The poker machine reform is good in principle but there is no mandatory pre-commitment for online poker machine gambling.
All Julia Gillard will achieve with these reforms is to aleniate Labor voters, even further, while appeasing Andrew Wilkie, who’s support Julia Gillard used to secure to keys to The Lodge, at any cost!
Wilkie will do a back flip when it comes to the crunch.
It is interesting that Mr Wilkie’s position on poker machines is based on strong principles viz. that he wished to protect a subgroup of the Australian community which was impoverished by its own addiction to gambling. Where were those strong principles when he signed up to support Gillard’s carbon tax directly contrary to the pre-election promises of both major political parties and the ongoing opposition of the overwhelming majority of the electorate; in effect the government’s impoverishment of Australians generally?
I have absolutely no respect for that woman… Julia Gillard. I will gladly foot the bill to send her back to Wales, if it means saving Australia from the most incompetent Prime Minister and her whacko ideas!!!!!
Have you wondered why uni students are (more often than not) left leaning? You have to be a little bit smart to get into uni. Have you ever wondered why sporting & shooting clubs are (more often than not) right leaning? …
But back to topic … Who will she alienate next? Hopefully it will be extremist conspiracy theorists who are scientifically illiterate, and their shock-jock hate-mongers.
Pokie legislation will pass & Australia will be much better for it.
The arrogance of the Left on display for all to see. Thanks, Anthony. By the way, those same uni students who were left wing when young eventually mature and realise their mistakes.
[In the section on Facebook which shows people Anthony admires, I notice a large photo of Bob Brown – says it all, really]
He also has as interests on his profile the ‘Atheist Alliance Inernational’ and ‘Dalai Lama in Australia’. Some might say these are contradictory. Hmmm….Fair dinkum
If you take a look at Anthony Halls ‘OTHER’ section of his Facebook page you will see the following ‘Likes’ which contain all the usual suspects:
Skeptical Science, GetUp!, Hemp, The Australian Greens, Wikileaks, Carbon Tax Facts, Senator Bob Brown, Friends of the Earth International, Can this sanitary napkin get more fans than Tony Abbott? and oddly Buddhist Geeks. (I’m not sure how trolling and political rants fit in with Buddhism).
Oh great its one of these arrogant “know it all” Uni students. People in Uni are leaning toward the left not because they are more intelligent than everybody (although they would like to think so). It is because they have been brainwashed non-stop since primary school science class with the Fraudulent “theory” of man-made Global Warming. It is all 100% propaganda, fake environmentalism & its so ridiculously biased that there isn’t even a mention of any counter argument to GW. Its Cooked up by Al Gore (& his PR team), a politician NOT A SCIENTIST, that has been caught out lying on a number of occasions (not to mention a rape charge against his name, in which all the evidence mysteriously disappeared, how convenient for the scumbag); I mean he even claims he invented the internet for Christ sake. This is a con-man who convinces people his theory isn’t he even up for debate & when someone does try to debate him or even ask him question he doesn’t like he either runs away, insults their intelligence or simply has security throw them out.
You smugly gloat that you & your fellow sheep are more intelligent than everyone simply because you attend a government owned education facility? Wake up fool, you are being lied to. You are making the grievous mistake of identifying your personal beliefs with & having loyalty to a political party. One who will show you none in turn, I can promise you that. Think what you will about the prime ministers policies, the fact remains she has consistently lied to the Australian public about almost everything throughout her entire political carrier. Every day its just a new lie, another false promise, another election promise broken & her like most politicians can’t even give straight answers to questions anymore. Its just the same old dancing around the issue with the same old political rhetoric we’ve all heard 10X over. Whats to stop her from lying again or bringing in another tax or taking away more of the people rights? The answer is not much.
Surely you can see that she not working in the interests of the people, Just another money making scam, which is so typical of governments these days. How the hell is a great big tax on every aspect of human activity & buying fake “carbon credits” from an offshore Rothschild owned bank going to do anything for the environment? IT IS NOT. If it you actually think it is then there is serious problem with your logic & you need to re-consider your evaluation of yourself as a so-called “intellectual”.
Actually you will find that you or anyone else that believes Al Gore’s scaremongering are scientifically illiterate because there is growing evidence from many independent scientific researchers that proves GW has more to do with the sun & solar radiation than it does when people exhale (CO2) or fart (Methane). Of course its all being ignored by governments & the ICCB; why would that be I wonder? Might it be that they all stand to gain a huge financial benefit from it all?
Oh no if we think that we are all insane conspiracy theorists & hate-mongers who need immediate psychological help because we don’t believe everything the government tells us on main-stream television stations. All of them by the way are owned by Reuters, the Associated press or one of their subsidiary companies.