By Kirsty Needham
ROB OAKESHOTT, the independent MP whose vote is needed to pass controversial poker machine reforms, has been missing from the vitriolic debate this week because he is in the Borneo jungle - on a trek sponsored by Clubs NSW.
Clubs in NSW must spend 1.5 per cent of poker machine revenue over $1 million on community programs, and they have warned that their sponsorship of local sports teams and charities will be slashed if mandatory poker machine restrictions are introduced.
Mates together ... Scott Morrison, Rob Oakeshott and Jason Clare on the Sandakan trek in the jungles of Borneo.Credit: Twitter
Clubs NSW contributed $5000 and the Bankstown Sports Club another $5000 to the Sandakan Mateship Trek that Mr Oakeshott is undertaking with the Defence Materiel Minister, Jason Clare, the opposition spokesman on immigration, Scott Morrison, and 12 students.
''I hope he [Mr Oakeshott] is carrying some salt for the leeches,'' the Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie said when told of Clubs NSW's involvement.
This week Mr Wilkie said he had received death threats from the club industry - which it denies - because of his push to impose limits on the use of poker machines. He has threatened to bring down the government if the legislation is not passed.
Mr Oakeshott is being lobbied by Clubs Australia. Three days before flying out on the trek he met clubs in his electorate and said he would do nothing to harm their business.
Youth treks to Kokoda are a big charity program for Clubs NSW, which spends $100,000 a year taking people on the challenge.
In 2009 Mr Clare approached several clubs to sponsor a Kokoda trek he planned with Mr Morrison and students to heal the rift between the Muslim community and the Sutherland Shire after the Cronulla riots in 2005.
This year Mr Oakeshott, whose grandfather John Oakeshott was killed by the Japanese army at Sandakan in 1945, joined four indigenous students from his electorate on the trek, which was shifted to Sandakan.
The marketing manager of Bankstown Sports Club, Chris Passanah, said the club opposed the poker machine changes and had given $5000 because the Sandakan trek promoted good community relations.
He said the club's charity funding would be slashed if the poker machine legislation was passed and revenue dropped. ''It will kill us - the mandatory nature and getting people to sign up to a form. We will have to pull back from the community.''
A spokesman for Mr Oakeshott said he had paid for his trek. ''The sponsorship has paid only for the expenses for the students.''