Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Alongside social media, militant trade unions and overbearing bureaucracies, time and time again I have stood up to the predatory gambling industry. At the big end of town, these entities have been causing physical, emotional and financial harm to Australians, and they are running rife under this hapless Labor government. Shoulder to shoulder with thousands of locals, I led the charge against the former Sunshine Coast Council and vested interests when they wanted to build a casino on the Sunshine Coast.

As the former chair of the social policy and legal affairs committee of this House, I chaired the inquiry into age verification, which called on government to establish an age verification regime for online gambling and wagering. As the former chair of the finance and corporations committee, I chaired an inquiry into the use of credit cards and digital wallets for online gambling, calling on the government to ban their use in online wagering, gaming and gambling services. In short, you shouldn't be able to do online what you can't do in the real world. The member for Clark and I have various opinions on many things, but on this we agreed when we called for action on loot boxes on gaming platforms, which research shows are driving up dangerous gambling behaviours amongst young people and adults alike.

I'm proud to be a part of the coalition team, which committed to a ban on gambling advertising during live sport. This bill was tabled 18 months ago, but Labor and the Greens opposed it. Labor are owned lock, stock and barrel not just by the unions but by vested interests, and Australians are paying the price. Three in a four Australian adults gamble.

Honourable Member:

An honourable member interjecting—

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll take that interjection, because you might want to listen to this and learn something. Three in four Australians gabble at least once a year. Two in five Australians admit to gambling at least once a week. Concerningly, about one in six Australians aged 16 to 17 participate in under-age gambling—a number which almost triples for those aged 18 to 19. This comes at a cost of $25 billion a year to punters.

Despite these worrying trends, the Labor government has dumped its so-called comprehensive response to gambling advertising. What does this Prime Minister stand for? What has he accomplished? If he won't stand up on issues like these, how can Australians trust him in the challenging days ahead?