Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin has taken the Howard government to task for failing to do enough about problem gambling.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has indicated he has some sympathy with the views of anti-pokies campaigners, such as Nick Xenophon, who will become a South Australian senator on July 1, 2008.
Ms Macklin told parliament that gambling wrecked many lives and caused suffering for many people.
She said Mr Rudd had met World Vision chief Tim Costello on Tuesday about the problem and she would soon convene a meeting of the ministerial council on gambling.
"Key to tackling this issue has to be working with a very wide range of stakeholders," she said.
"I will be convening a meeting of the ministerial council on gambling.
"The council was originally established in 1999 and is made up of state and territory gambling ministers chaired by the commonwealth. The then prime minister said the council would and I quote `focus on stopping the further expansion of gambling in Australia'."
But she said the former government had dropped the ball on the issue.
"(It is) amazing then ... that the council has not actually met since 2006," Ms Macklin said.
"How on earth can a council stop the expansion of gambling if it doesn't actually meet?
"Unfortunately the Howard government's inaction on gambling didn't stop there."
The minister said the coalition had disbanded a national advisory body and dissolved a ministerial working group.
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