Coroner & Legal
Wilkie to complain over Ch 9 pokie comments
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie says he and Senator Nick Xenophon will lodge a formal complaint over Channel Nine’s airing of comments on poker machine laws.
The move came ahead of this afternoon’s NRL grand final which featured big-screen advertisements labelling the pokies reforms un-Australian.
Channel Nine has reportedly said there would be no editorialising during today’s television commentary, unlike last weekend when commentators Ray Warren and Phil Gould discussed Mr Wilkie’s proposed mandatory pre-commitment reforms during the station’s coverage of an NRL semi-final.
Mr Wilkie says it was passed off as commentary when it sounded more like political advertising.
He told Sky News a letter of complaint would be sent to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) tomorrow.
He said while Channel Nine and the NRL were entitled to campaign against the changes, there were clear rules governing political advertising on TV.
“If someone is going to effectively make a political advertisement, then there are issues that it has to be identified as such and authorised,” he said.
“People need to make quite clear what their interests are in this matter.
“When you have commentators who have clear links to rugby league clubs and hence a clear interest in the financial performance of those clubs, they should make that quite clear, otherwise they are at risk of deceiving their audience.
“In this case there is a prima facie case that Channel Nine and the commentators are in breach of the existing legislation.”
The Nine Network has reportedly confirmed there will be no editorialising on gambling reform in today’s NRL grand final broadcast.
But News Limited says league legend Steve Mortimer will feature in big-screen advertisements to tell the 82,000-strong crowd that the reforms are un-Australian and will hurt the football code.
Finance minister Penny Wong says the Government will not bow to such pressure.