Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has weighed in after Independent ACT Senator David Pocock was booted from a parliamentary sports club.
ICYMI, Pocock — who is also a former Wallabies captain — revealed on Thursday that he had been banned from The Australian Parliament Social Club after raising concerns about its links to the gambling industry.
The club, typically open to all federal politicians, organises social sporting events between politicians and journalists in Canberra and is sponsored by Responsible Wagering Australia (RWA), Australia’s peak body for the gambling industry.
Pocock had previously criticised the club’s links to the RWA and claimed it was a way for the gambling lobby to gain access to politicians, leading the club’s chief executive, Andy Turnbull, to boot him from the sporting events while accusing him of politicising the club.
Pocock was removed from the club’s group chats and altogether banned from future events at around the same time that his club membership was up for renewal.
Now, Albanese — who is the president of the club — has criticised the decision to remove Pocock from the group while dismissing the lobbying claims as “absurd”.
“I’m not wasting any time on this issue. The idea that parliamentarians voluntarily playing sport has any impact equivalent to lobbying is absurd, but participation should be open to everyone,” Albanese said, per The Guardian.
Following that statement, Turnbull said he would happily reinstate Pocock’s membership if he agreed to “work with me” in establishing rules about the club, but Pocock rejected the offer.
“Even if the club reversed their decision, I wouldn’t be rejoining the Parliamentary sports club unless they undertook a transparent, open process to consider the appropriateness of all current and future sponsorships,” Pocock said.
It marked the second time Albanese had addressed concerns about lobbying through the sporting club, with the PM being asked on Friday, before news of Pocock’s ban broke, if it was appropriate that he remained the president given its links to gambling.
“That’s David Pocock being David Pocock, getting himself in a story. You know, this is a voluntary organisation that raises money for charity,” Albanese replied.
“The amount of time I’ve spent on the Australian Parliament Sports Club this year is zero,” he added.
Pocock had directly mentioned Albanese when raising his lobbying concerns in a senate estimates hearing earlier this week. “[The prime minister is] essentially the president of a lobbying firm that lists Responsible Wagering Australia [as members],” Pocock claimed on Tuesday.
“I’m just wondering how this interacts with the ministerial code of conduct and when the [Prime Minister’s Office] was made aware of this,” he added.
Fellow independents Allegra Spender and Monique Ryan quit the club following Pocock’s ejection, with Spender saying in a statement that the club is “operating as a front for a gambling industry that spreads so much misery”.
For his part, Turnbull rejected claims that RWA is granted lobbying access through its involvement in the club, saying “there is an unwritten rule that no one talks business on the sports pitches”.
RWA also dismissed the concerns last month, with its chief executive Kai Cantwell saying its sponsorship of the club has “never been about lobbying”.
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