\n
My wife is currently in Africa filming a documentary about rhinos.<\/p>\n
Which means I\u2019m home alone on the farm with four kids. The wild Savannah has nothing on this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe teachers said Book Week is coming up\u201d, announced my eight-year old daughter over dinner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to go as The Cat in the Hat!\u201d squealed my five-year-old.<\/p>\n
My nostrils flared. In that moment I felt a bit like a rhino myself: cornered, cranky, and ready to charge.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re all going as \u2026 me\u201d, I declared. \u201cWe\u2019ve got the books. The checked shirts. And you can all take turns with Lucky the sheepdog.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Daaad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then my phone rang. It was Wally, my editor.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you hear? The Prime Minister quoted you in Parliament today. He basically read your last column out word for word.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWally\u201d, I said. \u201cAre you thinking what I\u2019m thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter 22 years working with you\u201d, he replied, \u201cI can confidently say I am almost certainly not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what I was thinking.<\/p>\n
If the Prime Minister likes my column so much, let\u2019s see if he\u2019ll read this one out in Parliament.<\/p>\n
I looked around the kitchen at my four little rhinos, one still wearing mashed potato on his snout. Their mum is over in Africa because there are men who slaughter rare, defenceless animals just because there\u2019s money in it.<\/p>\n
Well, we\u2019ve got poachers here too. Except they\u2019re not hunting rhinos \u2026 they\u2019re hunting our kids.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re the betting companies.<\/p>\n
They use the thing kids (particularly boys) love \u2013 sport \u2013 to groom them into gambling. Logos on the jersey. Ads on the TV. And odds in their ears before they\u2019re old enough to shave.<\/p>\n
Jackpot!<\/p>\n
Per head, we lose more money on gambling than any other nation on earth.<\/p>\n
Albo, I don\u2019t have the money that the gambling lobbyists do to host a private donors\u2019 dinner with you.<\/p>\n
Yet let me tell you, Book Week is about kids dressing up as characters from a story, but the real story this week is the one our current gambling laws are letting them walk into.<\/p>\n
It sure looks like you\u2019re not on the right side of the debate. Otherwise you\u2019d treat these punting poachers like the cigarette companies. You\u2019d ban them from sport completely. No jerseys. No stadiums. No ads at the footy.<\/p>\n
Albo, I\u2019m totally outnumbered here at home. My wife has flown to the other side of the world to stand between the poachers and something that couldn\u2019t fight back. You could protect my rhinos and you wouldn\u2019t even have to leave the building.<\/p>\n
Tread Your Own Path!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My wife is currently in Africa filming a documentary about rhinos. Which means I\u2019m home alone on the farm with four kids. The wild Savannah has nothing on this. \u201cThe teachers said Book Week is coming up\u201d, announced my eight-year old daughter over dinner. \u201cI want to go as The Cat in the Hat!\u201d squealed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7025168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[10055,20225,89327,17845,13177,11556],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7040492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","tag-barefoot","tag-charge","tag-cornered","tag-cranky","tag-investor","tag-ready"],"yoast_head":"\n
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