Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Credit and Other Measures) Bill 2023, which is supported by the coalition, as indicated in the shadow minister's second reading speech on Tuesday, because it derives from policy work led by the coalition in 2021. Specifically, the recommendations of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services in its inquiry into regulation of the use of financial services such as credit cards and digital wallets for online gambling in Australia, published in November 2021. That report recommended a ban on the use of credit cards and digital wallets as payment methods for online gambling, bringing the online gambling world into line with the offline gambling world, like in casinos or pokie venues, where credit cards have been banned—in a credit sense—for over 20 years.

Australia now has a significant problem with gambling, and, increasingly, that problem has become a digital one. For many, gambling has moved beyond a fun flutter with friends or family at the horseraces or on the footy field. There was a particular uptick in online gambling during the COVID years, when it was one of the few social exchanges Australians—in particular, Victorians, with our 262 days of lockdown—could engage in. But today we have a problem, and it's a big problem. Australians lose over $25 billion a year gambling, and we lose the most on online gambling in a per capita sense—in fact, 20 per cent more than any other country in the world, according to the Alliance for Gambling Reform.

Increasingly, that loss is occurring via the online platforms, unsurprising given that the uptake in online gambling has more than doubled over the decade to 2020. Roughly 10 per cent of the Australian adult population now gambles online, and the ease of using these platforms also means that more is being spent on them. It is estimated that approximately four per cent of online gamblers meet the criteria for problem gambling but that up to 30 per cent are at risk of experiencing a degree of gambling harm. Earlier this year, the Australian Medical Association referred to this kind of harm in their media release of 7 March:

The harms of gambling and addiction are far reaching in our society. As well being linked to comorbid mental health disorders and substance abuse, gambling harm can also cause family breakdowns, exacerbate domestic violence, cause financial distress and loss of employment and isolate people from support networks.

Like all addictions—gambling needs to be understood as a health issue, free of stigma, with appropriate treatment and support offered by qualified health professionals.

Today, many of us directly know someone with a gambling problem. It might be a husband, a brother, an aged aunt, a father, a much loved son or a co-worker. Watching them tackle this problem is heartwrenching and often involves a full family effort to help the problem gambler get back on his or her stable financial feet. We must all do more to address it and, indeed, the underlying reasons which lead to it.

It was part of the reason why, in the last sitting period, I hosted a symposium in this place regarding internet and gaming addiction. I thank the remarkable people from the Australian Gaming and Screens Alliance, especially Brad Marshall, Director of the Screen and Gaming Disorder Clinic in Sydney, and Wayne Warburton, associate professor in psychology at Macquarie University, as well as Professor John Saunders, Jordan Foster, Dr Daniel King and Dr Huu Kim Le. Together with brain experts, child and adult psychologists, and researchers from across the Australian university network, they gathered here in Parliament House in mid-September to discuss the condition of the two per cent to three per cent of young Australians whose internet and gaming use has become problematic, contributing to the likelihood of a problem of addiction and possibly gambling when they become adults. Australia has very little by way of services to address screen and gaming addiction. In fact, the three-month treatment program that was designed for young gamers by Professor Warburton is, tragically, at risk of cessation due to a lack of funds and the demands it places on the volunteers, who work with the kids, primarily teenage boys, to find alternative purpose and play outside screens and gaming.

This bill puts some necessary guardrails around online gambling, making it slightly more difficult to fall into debt through the ease of online gambling with a credit card. The bill amends the Interactive Gambling Act to prohibit credit cards, digital currency and digital wallets, making it a little harder for problem gamblers to overspend and send themselves into a debt trap.

I'm pleased to observe that one of Australia's major betting companies, Sportsbet, supports this change in recognition that we all have to do more to address gambling harm in this country. The bill provides ample time for our betting companies to set up the administrative changes they need in time for the bill to come into full effect, given the many technical changes that will be required to identify when credit is actually being used. I commend this bill to the House.

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