Labor posturing a little hard to swallow

OUR revelations about Labor's fundraising requests to Big Tobacco are particularly humiliating for the government because they involve the Health Minister and the Sports Minister, the two most sensitive portfolios when it comes to cigarettes.

But they also highlight the dangerous path of organisations trumpeting moral purity on fundraising matters.

There is no doubt the government's recent move to remove brand designs from cigarette packaging has triggered a strong response from the tobacco industry.

But Labor has defended what some see as a nanny-state initiative by attacking anyone who questions it as being in the thrall of the tobacco industry.

At the same time, the government is seeking to impose radical problem-gambling measures on poker machines.

Again, these are seen by many as a nanny-state intrusion, with the industry worried casual gamblers will be discouraged, and that pubs and clubs, and their employees, will suffer.

Yet the ALP took $1.4 million from the hotel and gambling industries last year, including more than $662,000 from the Canberra Labor Club which operates four poker machine venues.

So Labor claims to be on the side of the angels in gambling reform at the same time it relies heavily on gambling donations. Which makes its moral posturing over tobacco donations, and its mistakes in continuing to ask the tobacco industry for funds, look more than a little hypocritical.