The Liberal and Labor parties must come clean with any political donations they’ve received from gambling industry interests in the past 18 months.
In recent weeks, we’ve seen both Liberal and Labor politicians questioning the merits of a comprehensive mandatory precommitment card.
Clearly the industry is throwing its weight around – but is their strategy all stick, or is there carrot too?
The Liberals and Labor have a long history of raking in massive donations from the gambling industry. And this industry has spent decades exerting significant influence over the decisions of Liberal and Labor politicians. However, weak laws mean we don’t know anything about what donations the major parties have received since July 2023.
The poor state of donation laws is why the Greens will introduce legislation so all donations over $1,000 are disclosed when Parliament returns. But there’s no reason the major parties can’t be transparent about the political donations they’re receiving right now – including those from the gambling industry.
What we already know is the Liberals have received $700,000 from gambling interests in the period 2017-2018 to 2022-23. Meanwhile, nobody knows where vast sums of Labor donations are coming from, as they disclosed less than 5% of their income in 2022-23, the most recent reporting year.
With the Rockliff Liberals walking away from their promised pokies reforms, and Dean Winter Opposition Leader conspicuously standing on the sidelines, transparency is crucial. Tasmanians have the right to know what gambling industry interests have donated to these parties.
If there’s ‘nothing to see here’, the Liberals and Labor should have no problem coming clean with the community about this obvious matter of public interest.
