Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

In Australia today, we are overwhelmed by advertising of products that we know are harmful to our health. It's impossible to watch sports without seeing an alcohol promotion. You can't scroll on social media without being offered a betting account. You can't go to the cinema without watching a junk food ad. Marketing of harmful products is ubiquitous, and much of it is aimed at our kids. Children watching YouTube cartoons are being targeted by alcohol delivery services. Kids as young as seven are being exposed to unhealthy snack ads online. And 98 per cent of social casino games available for download on Android have an age rating of just 12-plus. I thank the member for Mackellar for raising this issue today, because it's an absolutely critical one.

This aggressive marketing of alcohol, junk food and gambling is enabled by the mass harvesting of young people's data. By the time a child reaches the age of 13, one estimate suggests that 72 million data points will have been collected on them. This staggering volume of data builds a profile of that child, which is then used by advertisers to push harmful products. Take Johnny, for example. He's 17. He doesn't gamble and he doesn't drink. Whilst participating in a study on digital advertising, it was revealed that Meta had created nearly 1,200 interest tags for Johnny. These tags included alcohol, bourbon, beer pong, poker, gambling, Bacardi, brewery, whiskey and Sportsbet. The list goes on. And the consequences? Johnny was deluged with ads for harmful products, many of which he wasn't even old enough to buy at the shops. From beers to betting, to spirits and lotteries, Johnny saw them all.

Johnny's experience reflects the stories I've heard from parents in Wentworth, one of whom recently told me that their seven-year-old had asked them, 'What is a same game multi?' This marketing is not without consequence, and we are seeing frightening impacts on children's health. Almost a quarter of children aged between five and 17 are overweight or obese. Nearly one in five teenagers have engaged in drinking activity that exceeds the safe limit for adults, and nearly one-third of secondary-school kids in Victoria have gambled. When much of this advertising is pushed through social media, the use of which is already associated with depression and anxiety amongst adolescents, it's no surprise that our children's mental health is deteriorating. We are failing our children, and we must act now.

To date our efforts have often been focused on dealing with the consequences of harmful products. We have spent millions on anti-obesity campaigns. We've set up support services for problem gamblers. We have funded alcohol and mental health rehabilitation centres. But when the social cost of gambling is $4.7 billion a year, when the impact of alcohol abuse is $14 billion a year and when medical bills for childhood obesity are $43 billion a year, our efforts to tackle the consequences look like a drop in the ocean. We are spending our time and our money on the consequences when instead we should be trying to tackle the root causes, which include the aggressive marketing of these harmful products in the first place. We are failing as a result.

This parliament has an opportunity to change things. The Keating government's Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act shows what can be done when the political will exists. The current government's clampdown on illegal vaping shows that the appetite for reform exists in the government; they just need the courage to go further. Real reform is needed, and the government is fortunate that the crossbench has done a lot of the heavy lifting. I'd like to acknowledge the members for Clark and Mayo, who over many years have presented a series of bills that would better regulate harmful industries, particularly gambling; the member for Goldstein, who has tabled a private member's bill that would clamp down on gambling advertising; and, of course, the member for Mackellar, who will soon present a bill to regulate harmful junk food advertising. Even the coalition has woken up to the need to reform.

Through its reform to the Privacy Act, the government also has the opportunity to take the lead and place better controls on the collection and use of data, especially where it relates to children and vulnerable people. It is time for some holistic reform in this area so that the gambling ads are not then displaced by alcohol ads or junk food ads. We need to look across the sectors. The government has the opportunity to be bold and to act decisively to leverage the work that has been done by the crossbench and end the aggressive marketing of harmful products for good. They must take this opportunity.

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