#17 Australia's desperate need to reform gambling and political donations laws - with Hon Andrew Wilkie

<p>Today I&rsquo;m speaking with the Honourable Andrew Wilkie, Independent Member for Clark. Andrew&rsquo;s concerns with regulation and governance are some of the most publicised in modern Australian history. On 11 March 2003, Andrew resigned from his role as an intelligence official at the Office of National Assessments over concerns about the impending Iraq War. He was the only intelligence official in Australia, the US or the UK to publicly resign before the invasion. Upwards of 1 million Iraqi nationals died as a result of that war.</p> <p>From that point Andrew has done many things, including being in Federal Parliament since 2010. He has been an outspoken advocate on many issues left out of public debates by the main political parties. I wanted to speak to Andrew because of his work on two key issues that intersect with regulation: gambling, and political donations. Today we spoke about both, and Andrew tells us how he has connected to the issues, how the current system is failing, what the Parliament can do to fix it, and what you can do to make sure the Parliament does fix it.</p> <p><strong>Timestamps</strong></p> <ul> <li>Why regulation matters to Andrew and his community (2:15)</li> <li>Andrew's work in gambling reform (6:15)</li> <li>The harms arising from gambling (13:00)</li> <li>The links between gambling policy and political donations (20:00)</li> <li>How reforming political donations would change our lives and system (28:00)</li> <li>What our Commonwealth Parliament can do to fix gambling laws (31:00)</li> <li>One thing that Andrew wants you to do (34:00)</li> </ul> <p><strong>Show notes:</strong></p> <p>Hon Andrew Wilkie's key integrity policies:&nbsp;<a href="https://andrewwilkie.org/integrity/">https://andrewwilkie.org/integrity/</a></p> <p>An ABC article on political donations, referencing Wilkie:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-23/how-gambling-industrys-biggest-political-donors-influence-votes/100592068">https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-23/how-gambling-ind