KEY POINTS:
- Anthony Albanese is facing calls to sack the communications minister over an alleged conflict of interest.
- Michelle Rowland took a large donation from SportsBet, which she now regulates.
- Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has demanded Mr Albanese remove her from the frontbench.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is facing calls to sack the communications minister after she took money from a gambling company she is now responsible for regulating.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has described Michelle Rowland accepting nearly $20,000 from Sportsbet before the May election, first reported by the Nine newspapers, as a "terrible error of judgement".
But Ms Rowland argued she was not in breach of the ministerial code, because neither of the two donations - one just under $9,000 and the other $10,000 - met the mandatory disclosure threshold.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is under pressure to sack Ms Rowland. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
"It beggars belief that she didn't see how unwise it was to be accepting donations from an online gambling company that she would have jurisdiction over directly as the communications minister," he said.
"I'm calling on the Prime Minister, he's going to have to sack Minister Rowland ... and he's going to have to impress upon all of his ministers that they must comply with the ministerial code of conduct. What's going on here is clearly in breach."
Ms Rowland accepted just under $19,000 from the online sports betting company, money Mr Wilkie said Mr Albanese must ensure is returned.
Sportsbet footed the bill for a nearly $9,000 dinner, held at a upmarket Sydney restaurant in March, supporting her re-election. Three days before the May federal election, it donated another $10,000 to her campaign.
Independent Andrew Wilkie has called on Mr Albanese to sack Ms Rowland. Source: AAP
The gambling industry, including Sportsbet, is lobbying Ms Rowland over a move to ban the use of credit cards to gamble.
But a spokesperson for the minister stressed she had acted in accordance with her disclosure requirements.
“The Minister and the Albanese Government are committed to reducing harms from online gambling," she said.
“The Government strongly supports the implementation of the national self-exclusion register, called BetStop, and the Minster is committed to getting it done.”
Mr Wilkie stressed the rules do not prevent the same entity making multiple, non-disclosed donations under $15,000.
The independent MP is pushing a bill which would see the disclosure threshold lowered to $1000, donations from any entity capped at $50,000 over one election cycle, and require disclosures to be made in "near real time".
"It will also ban what I'll call unsavoury donors, including: gambling companies, as well as tobacco companies, alcohol companies, and fossil fuel companies," he said.
The Australian chief executive of global anti-corruption group Transparency International, Clancy Moore, said he backed Mr Wilkie's proposals.
“The current federal donation disclosure threshold must be lowered and more aligned with state donations disclosure regimes which are much lower. Greater transparency is also urgently needed so that we know who is donating to our political parties and when," Mr Moore told SBS News.
SBS News has contacted Mr Albanese's office for comment.
