PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has rejected suggestions the federal government was never serious about independent MP Andrew Wilkie's poker-machine reforms.

Her comments follow The Sunday Telegraph's report that cancelled tender documents between the government and media consultants hired to sell the anti-pokies strategy were aborted in mid-2011 without informing Mr Wilkie.

Mr Wilkie has accused Ms Gillard of being deliberately dishonest and of pretending to honour her deal with him until Peter Slipper defected from the Liberals.

"The suggestion about the reasons for ending that work is completely untrue," Ms Gillard told reporters in Brisbane on Sunday.

"The government did commission that work and, when we were satisfied we had what we needed, the work was brought to an end."

The tender documents show the federal government secretly aborted an $800,000 anti-pokies strategy in mid-2011.

The revelation prompted furious Mr Wilkie to accuse the PM of deliberately "playing dead" on her deal with him.

The government pretended for a further seven months that it would honour its power-sharing deal with Mr Wilkie, before finally dumping him in January 2012 - once it had wooed rogue Liberal Peter Slipper to defect.

Confidential tender documents obtained by The Sunday Telegraph show contracts were awarded to consultants to prepare for a communications strategy to sell the scheme to the public in April 2011, only to be suspended in June 2011.

Mr Wilkie said the documents showed the government was "never serious" about honouring its deal.

"Exactly when the federal government decided to not honour its written agreement with me to roll out mandatory pre-commitment nationally remains unclear," he said.

"What this information suggests, however, is that the government decided by mid-2011 to not run a public information campaign about the reform, which gave the pokies industry a clear run.

"In other words, the government was probably never serious about honouring its written agreement with me - Andrew Wilkie"

"In other words, the government was probably never serious about honouring its written agreement with me and tackling problem gambling.

"Its reluctance to even now bring on its watered-down pokies reforms makes me wonder if it gives a toss about the hundreds of thousands of problem gamblers and those they affect."

The Families, Housing and Community Services Department invited market research consultants Hall & Partners Open Mind in January 2011 to undertake market research ahead of developing a communications strategy for the scheme.

The documents, released under Freedom of Information, show the department awarded two contracts, worth $475,310 and $278,850, to the consultancy in April 2011.

The tender brief said a strategy was vital if the scheme was to be embraced by the public in the face of strong opposition from the clubs industry.

Two months after the contracts were awarded - and amid a highly damaging $40 million campaign being waged by the clubs industry - the department sent Hall & Partners Open Mind a letter ordering it to suspend its work.

The letter, dated June 30, said: "I can confirm that although the services required to be performed by Hall & Partners Open Mind have not been completed, the department does not require any of these services . . . at this time as the department has decided to suspend the project, of which these services form a part."

media_camera Labor letter on pokies

Families Minister Jenny Macklin recently claimed she had forewarned Mr Wilkie in April that the time frame for the proposed reforms would be difficult to achieve - a claim he has always denied.

Clubs Australia executive director Anthony Ball, who drove the campaign against the scheme, said it was no surprise the government was having second thoughts.

"It's hardly surprising that the government quickly had second thoughts about delivering the Wilkie deal," he said. "The evidence just wasn't there to support mandatory pre-commitment, and the public had made up its mind that giving problem gamblers a gambling card was a stupid idea."

A spokesperson for Ms Macklin said the government abandoned the pokies scheme because of a lack of support in parliament.

"It is incorrect to suggest the government did not support mandatory pre-commitment."

Hall & Partners Open Mind declined to comment.