Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to second the Interactive Gambling Amendment (Know Your Losses Activity Statement) Bill 2025 moved by the member for Mayo. I also implore the government and the opposition to support it. What the member for Mayo basically proposes is that gamblers are kept abreast of how much they have lost. It's very straightforward. It's a modest reform. It's technically very easy to implement and, I understand, would cost very little to implement. In other words, it wouldn't be an impost on anyone. I suggest that it would also complement quite well the commendable work done by the government so far. BetStop, the exclusion arrangement, is a good reform. The ban on credit card gambling is another good reform.

But my praise for the government ends there, because none of what the government has done, even if it supports the member for Mayo's excellent idea, will let the government off the hook, quite frankly. It is now well over a year since the so-called Murphy report brought out its 169-page report which contained 31 recommendations. The government is still to respond to that report and that is unforgivable. That report provides an excellent blueprint for reform. It is the most comprehensive inquiry ever done in this country, certainly by any parliament, into gambling and gambling harm. Those 31 recommendations are an excellent blueprint and they should be being rolled out right now. Instead, we will go to the election not only with almost no reform but with not even a response from the government to that report, and certainly no reform when it comes to the flagship recommendation of a complete ban on gambling advertising. I tell you why there will be no movement in that space. It is because the government and the opposition—they are peas in a pod on this one—are scared stiff of the gambling companies, are scared stiff of the media companies that profit hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from gambling advertising and are scared stiff of the major sporting codes, in particular the AFL and the NRL, who, between them, pocket tens of millions of dollars each year from the gambling companies.

I have said it elsewhere and I will say it again here: this is the time for the government, with the support of the opposition, to step up and to stare down the media companies, stare down the gambling companies, stare down the AFL, stare down the NRL and, instead, govern in the public interest, because we know the single most significant reform that is proposed by Peta Murphy and her committee was a phased in complete ban on gambling advertising.

I will end it there. Circling back to the bill moved by the member for Mayo, it is great idea, easy to implement, won't cost much, will help members of the community, and, ultimately, will save lives.

Debate adjourned.

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