Lobbyists, lobbyists everywhere

June 30, 2025

I’m not the slightest bit interested in sport or physical activity. I’d rather read a book. I walk three times weekly for my health only because there’s coffee and conversation at the end. Yet even I am sick of gambling ads on TV and in public spaces when I go out. And I’m aware, to my shame, that my monthly pub dinner is cheap because it’s subsidised by the gambling losses of people playing pokies across the other side of the bar.

So when the government caves to highly visible gambling industry lobbying and refuses to ban gambling advertising and harms are so obvious even to people like me, is it any wonder the far less visible but more contested fossil fuel lobbyists get away with killing the planet?

More power to community independent parliamentarians who are fighting so hard to protect individuals and society against the significant harm of gambling. That they fight to legislate protections that both Labor and Liberal agree are necessary only shows how captured political parties are by corporations and their lobbyists. Remember, gambling is only the tip of the iceberg. It’s not too soon to be thinking wisely about your vote in 2028.