Mr Abbott said he was not making any promises, just a prediction that his party is likely to kill off any mandatory pre-commitment scheme for poker machines that Labor introduces.

But Mr Wilkie says he is not convinced Mr Abbott would rescind the legislation if he was able to.

"He's actually been somewhat ambiguous. It's not written in blood like other promises are. He's talked about a prediction," Mr Wilkie told Lateline.

"And I think, in fact, that when these reforms are realised, he will find it very, very difficult to overturn them because, for a start, they have majority public support.

There's an old rule in journalism that ''man bites dog'' makes a far better story than ''dog bites man''. Dogs bite men every day, making it a less newsworthy event. But when men bite dogs, something unusual is going on - something people might like or need to know about.

Don your newspaper editor thinking hats and answer this: which type of story is it when Business A comes out warning of dire consequences if it is slapped with a new tax?

Is that what you'd expect them to say? Well, yes, it is. Dog biting man. If Business A came out complaining it didn't pay enough tax, that would be man biting dog.

They raised their heads again last week - the good old ''senior sources''.

Their junior counterparts were nowhere to be heard, leaving it to the anonymous sources of superior rank to spell out the latest nuances in the saga - or should that be tragedy? - that the prime ministership has become.

Trying to write this in one sentence is tiring enough. So don't hold your breath, please, while reading it.

mischief by Gus...

picture by Gus...

I have bagged Laurie Oakes a few times as the Bibendum of news for sometimes inflating the value of a political leak, designed and used to undermine a government's work... He's the king of leaks.

On 14 October, President Barack Obama announced he was sending United States special forces troops to Uganda to join the civil war there. In the next few months, US combat troops will be sent to South Sudan, Congo and Central African Republic. They will only 'engage' for 'self-defence', says Obama, satirically. With Libya secured, an American invasion of the African continent is under way.

Labor's ''light on the hill'' is flickering. A fixation with climate change, stultifying spin and condescending paternalism are suffocating its formidable legacy. Workers, once the backbone of the Labor movement, are deserting the party. That's why the announcement of a McKell Institute in Sydney - a new think tank charged with reviving the party's intellectual gravitas - is good news for the Labor Party and the calibre of public debate.