The island, the letters, the loos

Welcome to Day 2 of Canberra Playbook ESSENTIALS Party room meetings will progress the debate on gambling reform, while Taylor awaits a response on his NDIS ultimatum to the PM. Pat Conroy calls bullshit on AUKUS myths. The secessionist movement Canberra forgot to pay attention to. DRIVING THE DAY LETTERS AND LEVERAGE: Labor and the Coalition are poised to reach a deal on gambling reforms today after Communications Minister Anika Wells introduced an opt-out register for online advertising, the ABC reports. A list of amendments will be put to the full caucus and party room meetings this morning for final approval. Listening and preempting: “The government has listened carefully to the evidence presented during the recent Senate inquiry,” Wells said, ahead of the committee actually dropping its report. Technically the Labor-strong committee recommended the reforms pass, but pages of extra comments from the Greens and independent Sen. David Pocock expressed dissent, while the Coalition called for amendments. “The government’s reforms respond to these concerns by introducing new restrictions on inducement-based marketing and establishing the Wagering Advertising Opt-out Register, which will provide Australians with a ‘one-stop shop’ to opt out of seeing wagering advertising on online platforms,” Wells said. OK, JANE AUSTEN: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Angus Taylor aren’t just holding talks, they’re now exchanging letters. Taylor has written to Albanese to say the Coalition won’t support the government’s NDIS amendments until slated tax concessions for widows and divorcees are passed, The Australian reported. Given the “widow tax” amendment is open for public consultation until Aug. 21, no deal there means no NDIS deal this week. As we went to bed, the Treasurer wasn’t committing to a deal on the “widow tax.” Potential loser: Jenny McAllister, who had high hopes that the NDIS legislation would pass this week. A message from Amazon: Thousands of businesses in Australia sell on Amazon. Like Freshwater Farm, a family-run business on the NSW Mid-North Coast. After buying the farm, Allan Hutcherson and his family revived its native plants and turned the oils and honey into premium body care. Already well known in Australia, they wanted to make a splash overseas — and Amazon helped them reach customers in the US, where repeat customers have nearly doubled. Learn more about how businesses in Australia grow on Amazon. THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW PAT CONROY, MINISTER FOR DEFENSE INDUSTRIES AND PACIFIC ISLAND AFFAIRS Finn McHugh interviewed Conroy in his Canberra ministerial office. Explain the Pacific’s importance to national security for the average Australian. We are in a permanent state of contest with other countries in the region. What’s the deeper point of rugby league diplomacy? This is the first time in the history of the world a country’s used sporting diplomacy to this level. It’s essential in building people-to-people connections. It interlinks our countries at fundamental levels. I call it “PM Marape’s Nelson Mandela vision.” Marape sees this as one of the ways to uniting a very diverse country of 800 languages spoken across 1,000 tribes. We’re using every lever of statecraft to be the partner of choice. We’ve now got a league fan in Number 10. Is that a point of leverage? And is Andy Burnham coming to the World Cup in October? Well, I hope so. I have no idea. The northern English Rugby League heritage is incredibly powerful. So it’s a great opportunity. One of my greatest rugby league heroes is Adrian Morley. Barrow-in-Furness, where Britain builds its nuclear subs is facing an uphill battle just on ballistic submarines, let alone the new attack class. I think declarations of the death or struggles of the U.K. sovereign industry have been completely overblown. They’ve got challenges but now they’re scaling up massively. I was in Barrow in February 2023: they had 8,000 people in a shipyard. Now it’s 16,000.