I left Australia quite a few years ago; is Abbott proving in general to be even more conservative than Howard was? (I suppose one can call Howard conservative, even though from my perspective he changed the country radically.)
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Hey Flashman,
Tony Abbott is definitely more conservative than John Howard even looked. When Howard was in opposition, he looked more like a yes man. But once he got into power he unleashed some fairly radical changes.
I hope history proves me wrong but I fear Howard was twice the PM that Abbott ever will be.
Thanks for your comment
Laz
I guess we won't know too much until the senate changes over mid next year though right?
Originally posted by dannywratten
I guess we won't know too much until the senate changes over mid next year though right?
Hey Danny,
Yeah you're right. Parliament probably won't get serious to February/ March next year and with the half senate changeover in June it would be unlikely to see much movement until then.
It may come down to Liberals doing deals with Independents to try and push their major legislation through. Although I do think Tony Abbott will be quite hard-nosed about giving too much power to too few Independents.
Hoping for no action
Laz
I had hoped to never dig out this thread but there is currently action before the Australian Parliament relating to reform of the Interactive Gambing Act (2001) that (if passed) will result in the complete banning of real money online poker for Australians.
Unfortunately poker is being caught in the middle of a rush job to close a loophole in the IGA in relation to sportsbetting.
You will find the text below of my recent post on 2+2
The start of the post is in response to a 2+2 user.
(SwoopAE;51263903) Poker Asia Pacific was forced to close a few months ago due to the legal situation in Australia not allowing an Australian owned business to operate online poker in Australia (I was doing some consulting work for the site at the time). The site just cashed out all of the players and basically said 'sorry we can't legally operate anymore and we've been asked to stop offering online poker from Australia, we'll reopen when/if we're legally cleared to do so.
I was very surprised that PAP even started offering real money games to Australians. I sort of assumed that they must have moved their servers and assets off shore (Vanuatu, New Caledonia etc).
The Merge network has been operating successfully out of Australia for years but as they do not provide services to Australians, they are left alone.
Prior to the 2013 election, Tony Abbott (then Opposition leader) demanded that real money poker apps be removed from Australian facing app stores.
So the precedent had been set. Have an Australian profile, Australian facing websites, assets in Australia (financial or physical (servers etc) or be physical located in Australia, then the Government has the power to take action and will.
From 2013 when the Liberals regained power, they have been pro-active in moving forward with gambling reform. This is exacerbated by the presence of anti-pokies(slots) crusaders like Independents' Nick Xenophon and Andrew Wilkie.
Both of these Independents don't have a hard line anti-poker stance. They seemed OK with the Labor party proposal in 2011 to legalise, regulate and licence operators to provide real money SnG/MTT games.
Our only hope is that when the Standing committee reports, that they recommend amendments or omissions from the bill.
Specifically the separation of mixed skill/chance games (player v player) from pure chance (player v house) games.
Jenny Williams (who was UK Gaming Commissioner) who oversaw the introduction of the British regulation made a submission earlier to an earlier inquiry that was pro regulation. You can view that submission here (No 21). Hopefully the current committee will also consider submissions from the lapsed inquiry earlier this year.
So what happens next. The standing committee sends the bill (with or without amendments/omissions) back to the House of Representatives (Lower House) for consideration. If the sponsor of the bill (Hon. Alan Tudge MP) is satisfied, there may well be a vote there and then.
The Government have a majority in the House of Reps (76/150) so it would pass by the numbers to the Senate (Upper House). Now it gets tricky. The Government only has 30/76 in the Senate so they need help to get it through.
This is unlikely to come from the Opposition (Labor) who currently have 26 seats as they favour regulation. That leaves the Government needing 9 votes from the 20 crossbenchers which include 3 votes from Team Xenophon (who should support the bill).
The biggest block of votes on the crossbenches belong to the Greens with 9. The Government may be forced into pandering to the Greens on some of their Environmental policies to get their votes.
The other 8 votes are made of a mixture of one policy parties and Independents like One Nation and Family First (stop immigration) and Derryn Hinch (name and shame paedophiles) so it's hard to know which way they will vote.
Sadly, I can't see online poker being separated from the bill (I really hope I'm wrong) and fear for the future of online poker in Australia.
A sad Aussie
Originally posted by msp3101
South Africa dominating the Aussies at cricket is a national crisis:sorry:
WAAAH 
But seriously after the 1st day of the 1st Test it looked like it was going to be all Australia. Then Steyn broke down as well but Duminy played a great innings.
The bowling in Hobart from Abbott, Philander and Rabada was as good as I've seen in 45 years of loving the great game of cricket. 
As a former batsman, I was glad I didn't have to face them.
Originally posted by rompas
Something new on this matter?
Everything is on hold now until February when Parliament resumes.
Oh dear the Poms are doing well on the first day in India.
I noticed that great Irish cricketer Isobel Joyce averted a crisis by recently turning out for Tasmania...:f_thumbsup:
Don't worry to much poker will not be banned there but will somehow temporary stopped. US has a similar situations you country is facing but look it now online poker has been booming left and right. When your government need to generate more revenues they would look at the gambling industry and one of the good source is online poker.
I am driving my campervan through the vast lands of Australia. I have a 4G from Optus which works pretty much everywhere. 160AH gel battery supplies power to my laptop and usb monitor for few days between recharges. I play online poker near the beach, in the rain forest, on top of the mountain and even in the downtown sometimes!
Every time I stop in a new town the first place I go is one of those bars with Pookies
I talk to fellow gamblers, young and old and explain them with thick Russian accent they can't really win from those machines. Then I show them the game of Poker. The Real one. I show them my stats, show pictures and videos of me travelling around the world and hanging out with other Poker players. They become amazed and rush home to install that poker client on their home computer and their mobiles. This all surely filmed and posted in video blog, social networks and the like. And no surprise sooner or later the major Poker rooms notices these efforts, they decide to support the action. We gather a team, start shooting high quality videos: with ozzie pro poker players, with ozzie stars and celebrities. Promoting the game over the pookies, horse betting, greyhound racing betting, etc. Positioning it as an intellectual game as opposed to dumb gambling. Suddenly the Poker becomes a national game of choice for the most gambling nation in the world. Australian poker players start coming out of the shadow, start paying taxes and take their lawful place in the professional society, on the same level as bankers, stocks brokers, etc.
The Parliament, not without the help of Major rooms' lobbying powers, finally notices that, realizes they can make profit on this wave of popularity (well, better late than never)
and Yeeei!!
Australia Legalizes poker. The Australian Poker boom!
just dreaming 
Nice setuo, luckydont. It is my dream to travel around Australia in a campervan. Even though I have lived here all my life, there is still so much I haven't seen.
On to the latest news in regards to the 2016 IGA Amendment Bill.
AS THINGS STAND
The bill was referred by the House of Representatives to a Senate committee which recommended the bill be passed as is. This would suggest the Senate will support the bill as most of the parties are represented on that committee.
The Government has a majority in the House of Representatives so without intervention, the bill will pass through both houses in late February.
INTERVENTION
But moves are afoot to try and save our much loved game. 2+2 user SwoopAE has enlisted the support of a Liberal/National Party branch president who moved a motion at their last meeting to exempt online poker from the bill. The motion was passed unanimously.
This is now forwarded to Canberra for consideration but there is no guarantee it will be looked at without extensive lobbying.
There is also a move to try and recruit a Labor Party (Opposition) member to the cause as support from within the two major parties would mean the Amendment wouldn't be opposed.
SwoopAE will be present at the upcoming Aussie Millions looking for signatures for a petition as well as trying to enlist the support of high profile Australian players like Joe Hachem and Shane Warne.
There is also a Change.org petition which you can sign here and I urge all Australians and anyone else who may be planning to play from Australia to sign.
ADDITIONAL
Recently the Federal Court ordered ISPs to block 61 domains associated with torrent and illegal streaming sites. This has now set a precedent for the blaclisting and IP blocking of sites who do continue to offer services to Australians if this bill was to pass without amendment.
Originally posted by Lazza61
There is also a Change.org petition which you can sign here and I urge all Australians and anyone else who may be planning to play from Australia to sign.
all good. signed the petition and had few friends to sign.
UPDATE
The Change.org petition has now passed 1100 signatures.
SwoopAE will be at the Aussie Millions gathering signatures, handing out "Save Online Poker" patches and trying to garner support from high profile live players like Joe and Tony Hachem, Shane Warne etc as well as trying to get air time with Jason Somerville.
JoeyDel will continue to use his politically influence to try and keep this on the political agenda. He has also set up Facebook and Twitter accounts to help publicise the cause.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
-Share the petition on Facebook
-Like the "Australian Online Poker Alliance" Facebook page and share and like their posts.
-Follow "AusOnlinePokerAllies" on twitter and retweet all their posts, particularly the ones containing @JasonSomerville, @ShaneWarne, @JosephHachem, @Hash72 (Tony Hachem) or if you know them, tweet them directly..
-If you know your local MP or even walk past their office, drop in and have a chat.
-If you know someone who is pro freedom of movement/speech, let them know, because this amendment impinges on those as well.
#KeepOnlinePokerInAus
The risk there is that you are literally risking your life to do that.
life? what do you mean?
Ok, so they might block access through ISPs? Just use a VPN...
I think stars do not allow VPNs. Unless they would make an exception because of situation. Dont know about other sites.
It migth work for some time, but if they find out, who knows, they can freeze your roll forever. I would consult stars in that case before trying.
UPDATE
JoeyDel has drafted a letter that you can fill in your details and it will automatically send to your local MP.
http://www.taxpayers.org.au/keep_online_poker_legal
Please click this link, enter your details and hit submit. This will send a letter to your local MP telling them to keep online poker in Australia.
Please fill this out and share amongst your network so we can get as many people as possible to assist in our cause. Anyone who is on the electoral roll can fill this out so tell you friends and family!
888 are not waiting for the legislation to pass.
Hey xxxx,
Following a business reevaluation, we’d like to inform you that 888poker’s services are not being offered to players residing in Australia and therefore your account will be closed as of 16/01/2017.You’ll continue to be able to withdraw all funds from your bankroll using our web cashier.
If you’ve already registered to any of our tournaments starting from 16/01/2017 onwards, please unregister as you won’t be able to participate.
Regards,
888poker team