On Tuesday Getup members called on their local MPs to reject the Government's smokescreen of a gambling reform bill. You talked, and Canberra listened.
In record time more than 5,000 of you spoke out against the shoddy bill and yesterday Senator Nick Xenophon and Andrew Wilkie MP joined the Australian Greens in declaring the bill dead on arrival. They will not support it, and instead are pushing for the tried and tested '1-120 solution' that we detailed in Tuesday's email.
This is great news, but as Canberra drags its feet we don't need to watch and wait.
It's time we took the fight beyond Canberra and into the boardrooms of the largest players in the poker machine industry; the major grocery chains Coles and Woolworths.
Will you write to the CEOs at Wesfarmers (Coles) and Woolworths to let them know they have the power to create meaningful reform on a problem they're contributing to?
Where do you shop?
Coles: http://www.getup.org.au/coles
Woolworths: http://www.getup.org.au/woolworths
Woolworths and Coles together are the largest owner of poker machines in Australia, with more than 15,000 machines.
Woolworths alone owns more poker machines than the top five Las Vegas casinos combined, taking in an estimated billion dollars a year - four hundred million dollars of which is estimated to come directly from problem gamblers.
The same trusted corporate giants who pride themselves on offering quality products to millions of Australians are simultaneously bankrolling a product that takes the food off far too many family dinner tables.
Owning such a large share of the industry puts these corporate giants in a powerful position to enact and inspire, real change. They can lead Canberra by example and minimise the harm posed by poker machines - starting with those at their own venues.
Will you join us in urging Coles and Woolies to work with us to create corporate-led reform?
Coles: http://www.getup.org.au/coles
Woolies: http://www.getup.org.au/woolworths
Late last year, GetUp members whose lives have been devastated by problem gambling went to the Woolworths Annual General Meeting as proxies for shareholders and put a human face to their involvement in this dangerous industry.
Members from our community voiced their concerns, called for answers and questioned the motivation behind Woolworths pouring hundreds of thousands of shareholder dollars into the Clubs Industries misleading and dirty advertising campaign against poker machine reform.
It is clear from both polling and our own community that reform is desperately wanted on this issue. More than 76,000 of you signed our petition for pokies reform and called for Woolies to evaluate their position on poker machine reform.
Will you take five minutes to write a letter to Coles and Woolies calling for leadership on poker machine reform? Click here for Coles and here for Woolies.
Together we can prove that the poker machine industry hasn't won; that there are other, more impactful ways to create the reform that the majority of Australians want. We can show that change doesn't begin and end in Canberra. Let's take it to the boardrooms.
Thanks for speaking up,
Erin for the GetUp team.
PS - Yesterday Coles announced that it was looking to sell some of its pokies venues. While this might be a good start, let's encourage them to adopt the 1-120 Solution for every poker machine they retain and control.
PPS - Missed the story earlier this week outlining our 1-120 solution? Click here to see the email.
