FED:Wilkie pleased with PM meeting

AAP General News (Australia)
08-28-2010
FED:Wilkie pleased with PM meeting

By Melissa Jenkins

MELBOURNE, Aug 28 AAP - Independent candidate Andrew Wilkie has emerged pleased from
his prime ministerial meeting, saying Julia Gillard was genuinely interested in supporting
his push for national pokie machine reform.

"That was a good meeting," Mr Wilkie told reporters as he left 4 Treasury Place in Melbourne.

Mr Wilkie, who is close to claiming the Tasmanian seat of Denison and is therefore
a crucial vote for either major party to form government, had given a list of national
reforms and concerns about his own electorate to Ms Gillard.

He intends to send the same list to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, whom he will meet
in Canberra on Monday.

Mr Wilkie said it was crucial for the next federal government to introduce gambling
reforms, which it could do by using its powers enshrined in the Corporations Act.

"I made it quite clear to the prime minster that the time for inaction has passed,"

he said after the hour-long meeting on Saturday.

"I reminded the prime minister that her own electorate is notorious as one of the electorates
with the heaviest losses of any electorate in the country.

"The prime minister is well aware of that, and I believe she genuinely is interested
in bringing about some kind of reform."

Mr Wilkie specifically raised the prospect of a $1 bet limit on all pokie machines
nationally and a $120 per hour loss limit.

Ms Gillard had not closed the door on pokie machine reform, he said.

"I did emphasise repeatedly that reform of poker machine legislation nationally is
one of the most important issues for me personally and it's an area that I expect either
the Labor party or the coalition parties to commit to some kind of reform if they are
to have my support."

Mr Wilkie said he would meet with the prime minister again on Monday after his discussions
with Mr Abbott and would be expecting "firm commitments" from her at that time.

He said he hoped to make an announcement about which party, if any, had won his support
by early to mid-week.

"I think it's certainly in the public interest for all of the independents to do what
I'm trying to do and that is to reach a decision early," he said.

"I think people want stability. They don't want this to drag on, so I'm going to do
my best to move quickly now and foster that stability."

Ms Gillard did not answer questions as she left the meeting and got into a waiting car.

"We've had a good discussion, thank you," she told reporters.

Their meeting began with a handshake and Ms Gillard agreeing that Mr Wilkie's wife
and media adviser Kate Burton could join the discussion.

"Yeah, no, that's fine," Ms Gillard replied.

"We're certainly, we're an office of chairs, that's for sure," she added, motioning
to the variety of seats available.

The trio sat down, and Mr Wilkie and Ms Burton quickly switched places so he could
sit closer to Ms Gillard.

The trio then began talks over a jug of water and a thin black binder placed on a coffee table.

The binder looked identical to packages Ms Gillard handed recently to three other independent
MPs which touted Labor's record and election promises bearing on their electorates.

AAP mj/sbl/jl/de

KEYWORD: POLL10 WILKIE UPDATE (WITH PIX AND VIDEO)

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