Kate Seselja was so moved by the words of the widow of a man who took his own life after the couple lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in Hellenic Club poker machines, that she wrote an opinion piece for The Canberra Times criticising the club.
The late Raimo "Ray" Kasurinen and his then wife Marlene Kasurinen were able to get around laws which put a $200 ceiling on cash withdrawals to take out batches of up to $1000 from an eftpos machine at the Woden club, as revealed at the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Now Ms Seselja has told a Senate inquiry that the Hellenic Club has threatened legal action against her.
"I have privilege here today, but I'm being sued by a gambling company," she told the hearing, examining the Albanese government's proposed new gambling laws which public advocates describe as an abject failure.
"I wrote a piece to protect the community from gambling harm in The Canberra Times, and it was called 'Groomed and exploited to death', and they're coming after me because of me standing up," Ms Seselja said.
"A person died by suicide after losing all of their money, and I wrote about it, saying if they're saying that they've done nothing wrong, that means that's their standard practice. That means they're doing it to other people."
The Hellenic Club sent Ms Seselja a statutory concerns notice, which is a necessary step before commencing legal proceedings for defamation, last week.
The club has also issued a concerns notice to The Canberra Times as the publisher of the article.
ACT independent senator David Pocock said the Hellenic Club threatening legal action against Ms Seselja, an advocate for national gambling reform and the founder of The Hope Project Australia, was "disgraceful".
"I really do think it is disgraceful and not in line with what Canberrans would be expecting, given the great work that Kate Seselja does every day to actually raise the concerns and voices of people with lived experience," Senator Pocock said.
"Look at the power imbalance, look at the resources available to an organisation like the Hellenic Club against one Canberran. Clearly, it's not on, and I would urge them to rethink that. This is a tragic use of their resources and power."
Hellenic Club chief executive Ian Cameron said Ms Seselja's statement to the Senate committee was incorrect because the club had not yet commenced legal proceedings.
He said the club had issued the concerns notice to Ms Seselja inviting her to withdraw the article because it "contained incorrect comments".
Mr Cameron also objected to Ms Seselja describing the club as a "gambling company".
"The Hellenic Club is a registered club that operates a non-profit business," he said.
"The club supports respectful public debate on gambling policy but also expects serious factual allegations about its conduct to be accurate."
Public Health Association of Australia chief executive Terry Slevin called on the club's board to "reconsider that decision and think about their roots and the purpose of their organisation and community that they're meant to serve".
"I'm shocked that a community organisation that has the resources generated by having a bank of poker machines would use that financial influence to tackle someone who's trying to draw attention to an enormous social problem," Mr Slevin said.
Mr Kasurinen took his own life on March 31, 2020. After a five-year investigation, the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission accused the club of a string of breaches of poker machine regulations and fined the club $1.2 million.
The club appealed, and ACAT ruled in its favour on some allegations. It upheld the one about allowing multiple eftpos withdrawals in a short space of time.
Mrs Kasurinen last month told this masthead the club had got off lightly and called on anyone else affected to come forward and "do something so we can stop more families being destroyed like mine was".
Communications Minister Anika Wells said on Monday that the government would "continue to work on ... how to improve" measures to prevent gambling harm, after concerns were raised with her about gambling companies continuing to offer inducements to people at risk of harm.
