Howard urges Albanese: Pick a fight I always ducked when I was in office

This article is an instalment in a new series, Punted, on the government’s failure to reform gambling advertising.

John Howard would like Anthony Albanese to do something he never did himself as prime minister: take on Australia’s big media companies.

That’s the inevitable consequence of what Howard and others have urged the government to do in an open letter on the need to implement the late Peta Murphy’s recommendations on banning gambling advertising.

Howard signed the letter alongside Liberal successor Malcolm Turnbull, and luminaries on both sides of the political aisle — Dominic Perrottet, Steve Bracks, Jeff Kennett, along with Lucy Turnbull, Greens and independent MPs, and a who’s who of the anti-gambling lobby.

Of the major political figures signing up, only Perrottet has walked the walk on gambling.