Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is facing calls to dismiss the country’s Communications Minister Michelle Rowland after she was found to have received political contributions from one of the largest bookmakers in the country right before the election.
Now, both Minister Rowland and Prime Minister Albanese are under pressure over recently unveiled allegations that the Communications Minister received political donations from Sportsbet. Long-time anti-gambling advocate and independent Member of Parliament Andrew Wilkie has criticised the Minister and called for Mr Albanese to make sure Ms Rowland will face immediate consequences for her actions.
According to media reports, Ms Rowland received almost AU$19,000 as contributions in the lead-up to the last year’s election. Reportedly, one of the biggest bookmakers in Australia – Sportsbet – funded a campaign dinner worth AU$8,960 for the current Communications Minister at the luxurious Sydney CBD restaurant Rockpool. Then, the gambling operator donated another AU$10,000 only three days before the election took place on May 19th, 2022.
At the time, Ms Rowland occupied the position of the shadow communications minister that was directly involved in the online gambling agenda of the opposition. In her job as Communications Minister, she has jurisdiction over the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and the Interactive Gambling Act (IGA).
Sportsbet Made Monetary Contributions to Both the Coalition Government and the Opposition
The Sportsbet-made donations were described by Mr Andrew Wilkie as “shocking errors of judgement”, especially considering the fact that Ms Rowland was supposed to become responsible for the relevant legislation and regulatory body overseeing the online gambling industry of Australia. According to him, she had no right to accept monetary contributions from an online gambling operator and, if the recent media reports were accurate, the Australian Communication Minister was deeply conflicted and has to be removed from her current position as soon as possible.
The prominent gambling reform advocate shared that, in his opinion, the Prime Minister must fire her right away if he was concerned about restoring integrity in politics. Mr Wilkie also shared that the Australian Labour Party needs to immediately return the donation to Sportsbet.
According to a spokesperson for the Communications Minister, all monetary contributions received by Ms Rowland were in line with the requirements of the Australian Electoral Commission, the Ministerial Code of Conduct, and the Register of Members’ Interests. The spokesperson also shared in a statement that both the Albanese Government and the Communications Minister remain devoted to reducing online gambling-related harm, and support the development and implementation of BetStop, the national self-exclusion register.
Reportedly, Sportsbet made a number of contributions to both political parties in 2021 and 2022. According to data provided by the Australian Electoral Commission, some of the donations during the aforementioned period include AU$143,000 gifted to the Coalition and AU$135,000 gifted to the Labour Party. Although the donations of the online gambling company were disclosed to the Australian Electoral Commission, the NSW branch of the Labour Party did not declare the individual payments because they were under the threshold of AU$15,200 that requires mandatory public disclosure.
- Author
Daniel Williams
