Labor big winner from $1m pokies donation jackpot

Victoria's pokies-owning pubs poured their biggest ever political donation into the Daniel Andrews-led ALP as part of a $1 million campaign to deny the Greens the balance of power at the state election last November.

The Australian Hotels Association imposed a special one-off levy on pub poker machines to help bankroll donations of at least $500,000 to Labor and about $300,000 to the Coalition parties.  It also funded independents who preferenced the major parties.

The state's pubs lobby gave its largest-ever donations to the Labor Party ahead of the last election.Credit: Josh Robenstone

The gaming industry feared the Greens winning the balance of power in Victoria because of the party's strong anti-pokies policies, including the phasing out of poker machines from pubs and clubs and introducing $1 maximum bets.

The community clubs sector (such as football clubs) also contributed to Labor's thumping victory and the routing of the Greens with its first ever state election campaign aimed at "mobilising" the 600,000 members of its gaming clubs and encouraging them to vote for the major parties.

The pubs and clubs were alarmed when opinion polls last year pointed to a close election result and what one senior pub industry insider described as the potential "crisis" of a hung parliament.

"Our clubs were under threat," Community Clubs Victoria president Leon Wiegard told The Age. "We didn’t want the Greens to have the balance of power with their draconian ideology."

The AHA is the major lobby for pubs, hospitality and gaming with members including Woolworths' majority-owned ALH group, Australia's biggest poker machine venue operator and the James Packer-backed Crown Resorts.

The association has doled out millions of dollars across Australia over the past two decades but appears to have made its biggest-ever political donations in Victoria last year.

Mr Andrews' office referred questions about donations to ALP headquarters. The ALP, the Coalition parties and the AHA all refused to detail their election year donations.

But industry and party sources say the AHA contributed at least $500,000 – and possibly much more – to Labor. That would be one of the largest corporate donations ever received by the Victorian ALP and a three-fold increase on the $171,000 the AHA gave Labor ahead of the 2014 election.

The AHA gave the Liberals and Nationals about $300,000 in total in 2018, also an increase – albeit a much smaller one – on 2014 donations.

Independent candidates preferencing the major parties ahead of the Greens also won AHA backing including in Planning Minister Richard Wynne’s marginal seat of Richmond.

Liberal party member Kevin Quoc Tran ran in the election as a Liberal-aligned independent after his own party decided against running a candidate. He preferenced Mr Wynne ahead of the Greens.

We are looking forward to enjoying a bit of stability and added certainty.

AHA's Paddy O'Sullivan

Mr Tran said the AHA helped bankroll his campaign, funding some of his printing and a mailout to voters, but he would not disclose the amount.

The Age can confirm the AHA contributed at least $10,000 to the Tran campaign to boost preferences to Labor ahead of the Greens.

Greens leader Samantha Ratnam said the anti-Greens campaign showed the industry was panicking about the growing community opposition to pokies.

She said the Greens would not modify their policy despite the gaming industry money directed against it.

"We'll continue to pursue what is best for the community and not be influenced by big corporations that try to throw their weight around and influence election outcomes."

In contrast to the Greens, Labor has won gaming industry favour including through its controversial extension of existing poker machine entitlements for 20 years (from 2022 to 2042), and the introduction of a $500 EFTPOS daily cash withdrawal limit in gaming venues, which was higher than the $200 limit set in Tasmania.

AHA Victorian chief executive Paddy O’Sullivan said the AHA worked closely with "both sides of the political divide" and with those who showed a "willingness to consult".

"We are enjoying a relatively smooth period at the moment," he said of the Andrews government.

"We are looking forward to enjoying a bit of stability and added certainty."

Community Clubs Victoria – whose 1350 not-for-profit member clubs include 163 with pokies – ran its own campaign overseen by public relations firm, PRX.

Mr Wiegard said the 2018 campaign was the CCV’s first state election intervention in its 102-year history.

He said CCV had "invested" a lot of time and effort educating the major parties about its concerns, and correcting "misinformation" about the clubs industry. Mr Wiegard said the Labor victory "gives us certainty'.

Despite earlier polls pointing to a close run election, Labor romped home with a strong 11-seat majority.

Alliance for Gambling Reform director Tim Costello.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Anti-gambling campaigner Reverend Tim Costello, of the Alliance for Gambling Reform said inaction on problem gambling was "the major missing piece" in the government's "proudly progressive" policy record.

"It certainly looks like generous industry donations to Labor have been a factor in the Premier's curiously hands-off approach to tackling this vital social issue," he said.

In the 2018 financial year, Victorian pokies losses reached $2.7 billion, the highest in nearly a decade.

The AHA has campaigned against pokies reforms in other recent state elections.

In Tasmania the ALP promised to get pokies out of pubs and clubs, triggering a ferocious anti-Labor campaign including an AHA payment of $270,000 to the ultimately victorious Liberal Party.

Then at the 2018 South Australian election, the AHA contributed at least $325,000 to a campaign that helped end Nick Xenophon's 20-year political career and his push to return from the Senate to state politics through his SA-Best party.

Victorian Labor was acutely aware of the interstate elections with one senior government figure describing the Tasmanian policy as "brave" and Premier Andrews' approach as "pragmatic".

Labor’s new electoral laws now cap donations at $4000 over each four year parliamentary period. But the rules came into effect on 25 November, the day after the election.

Gaming and wagering giant Tabcorp is likely to have donated around $60,000 to the major parties at the last Victorian election. 

Crown is also a regular donor to Labor and the Coalition and is also expected to have at least matched the more than $90,000 it donated in 2014.

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