Sometimes you have to feel sorry for do-gooders like Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie. Thrust into a key position of power despite gaining one of the lowest votes in history, blackmailing Julia Gillard by threatening to bring down the government unless his mandatory pre-commitment poker machine reforms are implimented, huffing and puffing, preening his pneumatic ego and being egged on by extreme leftist activists in GetUp!, now it's all fallen down in a heap. Tony Abbott has pledged to rescind any "reform" if it is brought in, Jamie Packer - one of the richest men in Australia - has slammed the idea, and the voters in NSW and Qld are up in arms and on their porches swinging the baseball bats.
At first Wilkie looked all-powerful. Gillard agreed to his demands in order to achieve and cling to the prime ministership, Tony Abbott was reluctant to criticise pre-commitment because he thought he might need Wilkie's support to become PM and call an election, Packer and the other casino operators remained mute and the heavy lifting opposing the reforms was left to Clubs Australia. Extreme left lobby group GetUp! wheeled out gambling addicts supporting the reforms and it looked like a fait accompli. They even had an opinion poll saying that over 70% of the public supported the reforms. But it all came crashing down once it was realised that the reforms were pie-in-the-sky nonsense and would cause untold damage to the social fabric and lifestyles of communities up and down the east coast of Australia and in country towns in NSW and Qld.
Let's look at that opinion poll. Taken when Gillard first became PM, the 70% figure is largely an illusion. A new opinion poll taken last week shows that support for the reforms has now fallen to 53%. Voters in NSW and Qld are dead against pre-commitment and support is confined to the smaller states where poker machines are either banned, relatively new or confined to casinos. In NSW and Qld, clubs are an essential part of the lives of almost everybody. Many are employed by clubs, they have huge memberships, pensioners get cheap meals from clubs, they run well-equipped gyms with subsidised fees, they are a social hub for pensioners, kids and families participate in junior sport financed by clubs, charities get grants from poker machine revenue, clubs hold Christmas lunches and functions, it just goes on. To have all this put at risk just because of some do-gooder crank from the backwaters of Tasmania is outrageous.
The opposition from James Packer is significant. According to Press reports, Gillard met with James Packer because she hoped he would come out and support pre-commitment. Instead Packer realised he was being played for a mug and has broken his long-standing policy of not commenting on political matters by slamming the reforms. Gillard has had her fingers severely singed. Tony Abbott has pledged to rescind any reform that might be implimented so Wilkie now has nowhere to turn. Gillard can now safely drop the reforms, Wilkie is now isolated and has been neutered.
Mandatory pre-commitment has been a lemon because it is a classic left wing example of social engineering. An attempt by government to regulate the behaviour of the public. Very similar to anti discrimination laws, it presupposes that there is a problem with individual behaviour so the government has to step in to whip people into line. But sooner or later we have to take responsibility for our actions. We have a free will and self control, we are big enough and ugly enough to make our own decisions. That is why these reforms have been resisted so heavily, and why they now lie in ruins. It wasn't a good idea to start with, it was just an attempt to meddle in the free market and regulate private behaviour purely for political expediency and survival.
Gillard should formally announce that mandatory pre-commitment will not be going ahead and that Andrew Wilkie can go to buggery.
