David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications. The government has been sitting on its hands for 498 days since the former member for Dunkley, the late Peta Murphy, handed down her report on the harm caused by online gambling. Around the time of her passing, the Prime Minister said of Ms Murphy that she 'led the charge on reducing the harm caused by online gambling'. When will this government make a decision in relation to online gambling reforms, a decision very much on the minds of the Australian people?

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

ROWLAND (—) (): I thank the member for his question. I am sure everyone in this place knows someone or has constituents who know someone who has been personally impacted by the scourge of what happens when people have addictive problems with gambling. The fact is that this is costing our economy some $25 billion a year. The government is considering very carefully and consulting widely on the recommendations that were contained in the late Peta Murphy's report. It's important to note that there are issues in this report that go not only to issues of federal responsibilities but also to states and territories. That is why we are doing this in a coordinated way, and we are making good progress.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

It is interesting to hear some of the interjections from those opposite because, if only the Leader of the Opposition had been a senior cabinet minister for 10 years in government, they could have done something about this—if only! They talk about sitting on our hands. In the previous government, a report was put out on banning the use of credit cards for online wagering. What happened? Absolutely nothing. It was up to us to implement it.

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Take responsibility.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Moreton is warned. The member for Banks is entitled to a point of order.

David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's on relevance. The question was very clear. It was: when will the government make a decision on gambling reform? The minister should be asked to address that question.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister has made reference to that part of the question. She needs to make sure she is being directly relevant. She has been mentioning the report. She is entitled to do some comparing and contrasting, but the remainder of the answer simply cannot be about any other thing than the topic that she's addressing, not opposition policy. But I will listen carefully to make sure she is being directly relevant.

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

As we work through this as an orderly cabinet government that consults with people, we will ensure that we satisfy three key areas. Firstly, we'll ensure that children are protected. Secondly, we'll break that nexus between sport and online wagering, because we know that under the previous government—and this goes to the issue of effectiveness—when they tinkered with these rules it resulted in an increase in advertising. We will be forward-looking and comprehensive. We also want to ensure that we address that particular cohort that is at risk, which is young men, who are being targeted with that advertising to a saturation level.

We are determined to get this right. We are determined that not only will this complement the many efforts that we have made in this area, including the implementation of BetStop, which has seen over 20,000 people self-exclude themselves. This is going to the issue that we had to pick this up from the national consumer protection framework. It was not done. We've picked all these things up, including the wagering ban and making sure that the Stevens review, which had been buried under the previous government, was implemented. We will get this right, we will get this done and it will have a measurable difference on gambling harms in this country.