Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications. Today on the ABC, one of the pioneers of online sports betting Stewart Kenny said in relation to gambling advertisements:

… if you want to protect the children, you go ahead with a total ban. If you want to protect bookmakers profits, you go ahead with a partial ban.

Minister, who do you want to protect?

Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question and the imputations in it. Can I make it very clear that it's taken a Labor government to embark on the most thorough review of an area in need of overdue reform, rather than any other government. It is also a Labor government that is standing up to a number of very well resourced vested interests who do not want change.

This is a government that is being consultative and evidence based and that is committed to three things: firstly, to ensuring that we break the normalisation between gambling and sport; secondly, that we protect children; and thirdly, that we focus on the saturation of ads and the fact that they are targeted at one of the most vulnerable cohorts in Australia—namely, young men aged 18 to 35. We're doing that in an orderly, consultative manner. We're doing this in a way that is evidence based. The member has never—and I am happy to stand corrected—sought a briefing on this matter directly with me, but my door is always open.