The clubs have won the battle of the pokies, but Julia Gillard has had a victory too, though not that many people are willing to give her credit for it nor acknowledge it.
While a 12-month trial of mandatory pre-commitment on poker machines will now occur instead of the introduction of the reform completely, you can bet your bottom dollar that the concept is dead and buried.
The current Labor government, and no other future government for that matter, would dare take on the clubs in that way again.
The campaign from clubs to specifically target local MPs in their battle against mandatory pre-commitment was always going to ensure they won in the end.
Quite simply, passing the legislation in May as promised would have been the final nail in an already damaged political coffin for Julia Gillard.
Key western Sydney MPs, including Lindsay’s David Bradbury, would have lost their seats.
They still may – the impact of the damage already done by this issue, and the many others floating around, is still one for the voters of tomorrow to decide.
But in sending Andrew Wilkie off to the corner crying because he didn’t get the lolly he wanted, Ms Gillard may have just saved several key seats at the next election.
And while it has reduced Labor’s majority from two to one, the fact that any breakdown of the government before the next election is unlikely means that it’s all about the next scheduled poll.
There’s every chance Labor will win Mr Wilkie’s Tasmanian seat at the next election anyway, so the need for his support was only ever going to be temporary.
Labor was always going to back down from pokie reform in terms of mandatory pre-commitment not only because it was a dangerous and untested policy but because Mr Wilkie’s support, while important in the current minority set-up, is not something needed forever.
He does not have a stranglehold on his seat and can certainly be beaten.
Mr Wilkie is clearly passionate about poker machine reform.
It’s not something he thought up overnight and credit must be given for his dedication to turning around a problem gambling issue that certainly does exist in Australian pubs and clubs when it comes to the pokies.
While Wilkie is the loser in this battle, there’s thousands losing a lot more than political points in pubs and clubs in Penrith this evening.
They are the real losers, and while mandatory pre-commitment was a flawed concept, the government should not lose sight of poker machine reform.
The clubs still have many questions to answer.
As far as Mr Wilkie’s future is concerned and whether or not the dumping of the proposed legislation will ultimately rock the Gillard Government, consider this: Mr Wilkie, and the other independents for that matter, need Julia Gillard as much as she needs them.
After all, at the next election, some of the independents will almost certainly lose their seats given their performance thus far and the circus they put us through after we went to the polls in 2010.
An early election would only terminate their political careers earlier than anticipated.
That’s why you’ll see this minority government see out its term, and that’s why the independents won’t rock the boat too much.
The word independent does not eliminate the term politically savvy from the dictionary.
Of course, much has been said about Ms Gillard breaking yet another promise.
But there are times when breaking a promise has to be ruled as okay, particularly when the weight of public pressure is against you.
Tony Abbott and the Opposition will pounce on this, and deservedly so, as Ms Gillard should never have committed to the proposal in the first place.
But one can’t mock another too harshly for coming to their senses.
On the surface, the debacle of the poker machine issue, combined with the carbon tax and so many others, is enough for the Australian public, which was deadlocked at the last election, to sway Tony Abbott’s way.
But the public may also give credit to Ms Gillard for backing down from a policy that was simply never going to work.
