No Pokies was an independent

South Australian Legislative Council The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the House of Assembly. It sits in Parli ...

ticket that ran upper house candidates at the

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

state elections.

Poker machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

s or "pokies" are the Australian version of

slot machines A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine ( Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively ...

. It was replaced by the

Nick Xenophon Team Centre Alliance, formerly known as the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), is a centrist political party in Australia based in the state of South Australia. It currently has one representative in the Parliament, Rebekha Sharkie in the House of Represe ...

in 2013. Independents elected from this ticket consist of: *

Nick Xenophon Nick Xenophon ( Nicholas Xenophou; born 29 January 1959) is an Australian politician and lawyer who was a Senator for South Australia from 2008 to 2017. He was the leader of two political parties: Nick Xenophon Team federally, and Nick Xenophon ...

, barrister and anti-gambling campaigner, elected in 1997 on 2.9 percent with preferences and again in 2006 on 20.5 percent *

Ann Bressington Ann Marie Bressington (born 12 September 1955) is an Australian politician. She was elected to the South Australian Legislative Council at the 2006 South Australian election as Nick Xenophon's running mate on his Independent No Pokies ticket. ...

, anti-drugs campaigner, elected in 2006 as Xenophon's first of two running mates * John Darley, former valuer-general, third running mate in 2006 was appointed on 21 November 2007 to replace outgoing MP Nick Xenophon, re-elected in 2014

Federal politics

Xenophon resigned from the

in early October 2007 to stand for the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter ...

as an independent at the 2007 federal election in which he was successful, on a primary vote of 14.78 percent. ABC election analyst

Antony Green Antony John Green (born 2 March 1960) is an Australian psephologist and commentator. He is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's chief election analyst. Early years and background Born in Warrington, Lancashire, in northern England, Gree ...

had stated prior to the election that Xenophon would win a seat, while Centrebet speculated his odds would start on a favourable $1.50 for and $2.70 against.

Nick Minchin Nicholas Hugh Minchin (born 15 April 1953) is a former Australian politician and former Australian Consul-General in New York, USA. He previously served as a Liberal member of the Australian Senate representing South Australia from July 1993 t ...

"urged people not to vote for Mr Xenophon", with the Liberal Party's 2006 upper house vote only 5.5 percent higher, and polled lower than Xenophon in some booths. Xenophon's federal platform consists of anti-gambling, pro-

consumer protection Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent business ...

, attention to the water crisis, ratifying

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

, opposition against what he calls a decrease in state rights, and opposition to

WorkChoices WorkChoices was the name given to changes made to the federal industrial relations laws in Australia by the Howard Government in 2005, being amendments to the ''Workplace Relations Act 1996'' by the ''Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices ...

. Xenophon shared the balance of power with the Greens and Family First during the 2008–11 Senate parliamentary session, with the Greens holding the sole balance of power since July 2011. Xenophon has been reported in the media as "left-of-centre", whilst Hansard reveals that Xenophon and the Greens have found common ground on a number of issues.

Parliamentarians

Federal

*Senator

(SA), 2008–2017 (elected in 2007, continues for Nick Xenophon Team)

State

South Australia

* John Darley MLC, 2007–current (left successor party in 2017) *

MLC, 2006–2014 (left party in 2013) *

MLC, 1997–2007

References

{{reflist

External links

Nick Xenophon for the Senate 2007

2002 No Pokies upper house preferential
legislative council ticket.
2006 No Pokies upper house preferential
legislative council ticket. Defunct political parties in Australia Gambling in Australia Single-issue political parties