Prime Minister Julia Gillard has maintained that turning down the proposed gambling reform bill espoused by Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie was the right thing to do at this time, despite the latter's decision to cut ties with the Labor-led government.

While not dwelling on questions that her stance on the issue was contradictory to a supposed written agreement with Wilkie when the independent MP decided to throw his support behind the Australian Labor Party in 2010, Ms Gillard explained that Wilkie's pet legislation cannot be accommodated at this time.

Wilkie has been working for poker machines to have bet limits and its operations on casinos to be governed by mandatory pre-commitment to take effect over the next two years, with possible reform roll outs by May this year.
Ms Gillard, however, admitted that she cannot muster enough numbers for the Parliament to support the poker machine revisions.

In its stead, the Labor government tried to appease Wilkie into accepting a compromise, in which some $87 million will be made available for trial of the proposed reforms to be initially deployed on casino clubs in ACT.

Ms Gillard said that clubs agreeing to host the one-year trial phase will benefit from the initial $37 million that will finance the initiative, with plans of full implementation by 2016.

That of course will depend on the support that Labor will be able to gather once the bill has been reintroduced on 2013.

In an interview with ABC Radio, the Prime Minister stressed that the solution she offered before Wilkie is the best available for now.

"We can have all sorts of political argy-bargy and end up with nothing ... or we could get a piece of legislation through the parliament that will deliver real change," Ms Gillard was quoted by ABC as saying on Monday.

It appears though that the best that Ms Gillard can do for now was not acceptable to Wilkie, who was instrumental in allowing the Labor leader to keep her post following the stalemate that resulted during the 2010 general elections.

Wilkie has declared over the weekend that he will cease from supporting the Gillard government but clarified that he would not back efforts to oust the Labor leadership unless there is evidence pointing to grave misconduct.

The independent MP found himself against the wall when he could not count on colleagues to rally with him on the gambling reform measures following the emergence of indications that Ms Gillard would not stand for his advocacy.

Wilkie lamented that his former ally did not even give his proposal a fighting chance in the Parliament.
"When there is a reform, particularly when it is something agreed to in writing, it should have been drafted up, it should have been debated in the Parliament and it should have been tested in the Parliament - that's how democracy works," Wilkie told The Herald Sun.

However, Ms Gillard said that implementing the reforms wanted by Wilkie will require more time and adjustments, which include preparing the industry for the overhaul of the technology it presently employs on poker machines.

Jumping on the fray, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said that what happened to Wilkie only proved that the present disposition cannot be trusted.

"The prime minister began last year with an act of betrayal over the carbon tax and she's begun this year with an act of betrayal over poker machines ... it shows how completely untrustworthy, how utterly unreliable this prime minister is," Abbott was reported by the Australian Associated Press (AAP) as saying.